The thing to do is to work in the US for a while making a much higher salary, but living as cheaply as possible and banking all that cash. Then go move somewhere where you can enjoy quality-of-life.

Three things:

1) Part of the idea is to make work more pleasant, not endure a bunch of misery and then retire happily.

2) I'm alive now. Tomorrow, I might not be. The idea that we should be miserable in the present for a happy future doesn't sit well with me (I've already used up 35 of my years of life!). Around the time I hit 30 I was startled how friends started dying. Not loads, of course, but the rate definitely is creeping up. The mom (and baby) who died of eclampsia really struck home and reminded me that you do not save the best for last. Tomorrow Is Not Guaranteed.

3) Life is a series of closing doors, so they say, and there are huge chunks of life where picking up and moving to another country is completely impractical.

Got a husband/wife with a career already going? Hope you're ready to throw out their career or get divorced. Got a kid in a school they like? Kiss that goodbye. Already in a career and think sticking around a couple years will push you further up the ladder? Better just wait a while longer, than longer still, and longer still...

Also I graduated college in 2008 and it was a bloodbath. I couldn't get interviewed for ages, and I get plenty of interest now. For any young'uns it's hard to convey just how different (and awful) it can be. And I had it pretty good - at least I was employed. BUT it meant that I wasn't throwing away a career to move to Europe - I had a pretty mediocre job anyway. In a sense, I should be grateful I had the freedom to know I wasn't really losing much by leaving.

>1) Part of the idea is to make work more pleasant, not endure a bunch of misery and then retire happily.

I never recommended spending your entire career living someplace miserable. It doesn't take very long to save up a nice amount of cash if you're working in a tech job.

Tons of Frenchies do that. Hell, thats basically Docker. A bunch of smart Frenchineers that wanted to get paid what they're worth for a while. Im talking about founders and those first 100 hires. But it seems as soon as they want to have kids its right back to France.

Do you mind sharing what role/salary you were offered in Dublin?

I was offered 35k for a junior role, but declined it as that seemed pretty low (especially taking into account housing difficulties there).

That does sound low. I started a junior role for a big company at 33k back in 2010. Every year that jumped significantly for new hires. I hear some java houses are still low balling though...