Ireland is a solid democratic European, English speaking country with no significant hard right presence in government.
Culturally I think an American would find it easier to adapt than eg France or Germany. The anglosphere individualism is present but watered down from the American extremes. Bureaucracy is low compared to the rest of Europe. People are superficially friendly, but it can be hard to penetrate social circles as an outsider. It is a more high context society than the US - you will be seen as a loud annoying yank, at least at first, but people can forgive, and you can adapt.
There's a functional social welfare system, free education and free Healthcare. All three have their problems, but are ultimately doing way better than our neighbours in the uk.
If you're black you will experience some racism, but not on the same level as in the us. When people hear you speak with an American accent a lot of that will probably evaporate. If you're hispanic, I don't think it will really register as an issue. Spanish speakers in europe are generally spanish, and are considered European, not some other lesser race the way they are in the us.
With a career in cs it should be easy to find a company willing to hire you, and sponsor your visa. Alternatively there is a special visa system (very badly advertised) for founders to move to Ireland and open a startup. Regardless, once you've been resident for 5 years you have the right to get citizenship.
This is all my opinion as an Irish developer who has been living in mainland Europe for the last 6 years or so.
> Ireland is a solid democratic European, English speaking country with no significant hard right presence in government.
This is of course anecdotal, but my partner spent a couple weeks in Dublin and a couple other Irish cities recently for a work thing, and was surprised to feel unsafe there. One of her co-workers was physically attacked by two drunk men, completely unprovoked, and several of her LGBTQ colleagues had disgusting things shouted at them in public, multiple times.
Depending on what group the toplevel poster is in that makes them feel wary about remaining in the US, I'm not convinced Ireland is a good choice.
If you want to move to Belgium, send me an email (cf site on my profile) and I can help you with the decision and the integration. We need more good software engineers and especially founders here.
Be ready to take a paycut. Salaries in Europe aren't what they're like in the US. But we make it up in many other ways.
It's kind of a best kept secret, but for US talent (bay area, EX-fang) there's a great market in Europe. 95% comp what you'd make in the US. Virtually unlimited leverage when negotiating.
