Why Ireland
The west coast — the Cliffs of Moher, Connemara, the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle peninsula — is a sequence of ocean landscapes that bad weather makes more impressive, not less. It is the heart of the trip.
The island is also a matter of living culture: traditional music is played every evening in the pubs without it being a show, literature has a public place, and the hospitality is real rather than folkloric.
Mind the political geography: the island comprises the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is British. The border is open and invisible, but the currency and the rules change.
Getting around
A car gives access to the coast and the villages; driving is on the left, on narrow secondary roads lined with stone walls, where average speed is low.
Long-distance coaches cover the main routes well and are cheaper than the train. Dublin, Galway and Cork are visited on foot; the rest needs a vehicle or an organised excursion.
Money
Cards are accepted everywhere, including in country pubs. ATMs are numerous.
Crossing into Northern Ireland changes the currency: sterling is the only one accepted there, and notes issued by Northern Irish banks circulate poorly elsewhere.
Tipping runs at around ten per cent in restaurants; at the pub, you order at the bar and leave nothing.
Before you go
The weather changes several times a day and you set off with a waterproof layer, not with an umbrella — the Atlantic wind makes it useless.
The busiest coastal sites now require a slot booked online, notably the Cliffs of Moher, and unauthorised parking there is ticketed.
On narrow roads, local courtesy has you lift a finger from the wheel to greet an oncoming vehicle, and pull into the first widening to let others past.