And I too, have just returned. We had a fantastic time, and I think the Irish themselves, more than the sites, get the credit. Everyone we talked to was friendly and inviting, and we could not have had a better time. Really, everyone was fantastic. You’d almost have thought the whole country was trained to make sure we had a good time. (I was surprised by the number of Poles we met. They were all Irish friendly, also, but I was surprised to stop somewhere out of the way, for example, at a cafe in the middle of the Wicklow Mts, and be served by a nice, Polish girl.) For those of you who like to compare these things, I agree that the Irish drivers are very patient, similar to small town America. (The CO mountains also have pull offs, and such, and most people use them. The only problem is the occasional RV driver, who seems convinced that 50 cars piling up behind them is no big deal, and won’t pull over. We blame Texas.)
I was surprised how quickly I got used to driving. It helped that Obama’s visit convinced us to visit Glendalough on our second day, so I got to drive where I am most comfortable: small, relatively untraveled, mountain roads. Third gear was my problem gear. You always think about first gear, and second gear is easy on the way up, but third gear is the first one you hit going the “wrong way”. Fourth is easy from third, and the rest required some kind of highway. The roads are narrow - when they label a road as narrow they mean “you will be driving on something narrower than a lengthy, rural American driveway and it’s two way” - so meeting buses and trucks racing down the road has an impact on your blood pressure.
The suggestion to tank up at breakfast was excellent. I eat more than just about everybody, but even I found that a full Irish breakfast, topped off with what my wife and girls didn’t eat (I liked the bacon more than they did) and lots of toast. We get some bread or scones in the late afternoon, and were good until dinner. We enjoyed the food, bakeries and beer. We stayed clear of Cajun, kebab, and Mexican restaurants. We can find those here after all, but only have one Irish pub in town. We can get great beer here in CO, but that just helped appreciate what was on tap there.
For other tourists, we visited/did:
A two day bus tour of Dublin. Very useful for getting the lay of the land and reducing the amount of walking to get from site to site
Guinness (We spent a lot of time there. Partly because I drank my wife’s and one daughter’s pints and sample glasses, as well as my own. Hey, I really like stouts.)
Glendalough (We went there while Obama was in Dublin, and my one daughter had her last final exam. Ironically, she got waved to by Obama on her return from her final; an experience she probably won’t get here.) The drive alone is worth the price of admission, but get an OPW pass, if you are a history freak like the lot of us.
Back to Dublin now that our pass was still good. Because my daughter was a student, the Book of Kells was free. I did not expect to find it as interesting as I did. I was stunned. I think I went through the exhibit at half the speed of anyone not related to me. But even so, the Long Room for the library was just more moving. Honestly, I was so moved walking up the stairs, smelling the old books and then entering that library, that I almost teared up. I don’t know if it is because my mom was a librarian or what, but it was very emotional.
We also visited St. Patrick’s and Christ Church that day. I tour too slowly to get anything else that day. The crypt under Christ Church was really cool.
Then we headed north to Carrick Fergus, Giant’s Causeway and Derry in Northern Ireland. (Geologists and rock freaks will most appreciate Giant’s Causeway. Carrick Fergus seems most aimed at kids, even so, we really enjoyed it. Derry has the wall, but is not as much of a tourist site as the other places, unless you are a history freak like us.) Very scenic driving, also.
From Derry, we head over to Galway. (The Spanish Arch was a surprisingly affordable overnight spot for us.) From my perspective, it was a tourist shopping spot coupled with a good pub scene at night. My wife met a woman with a knitting shop there, and spent some time talking to her, while I picked up some books and CDs on learning Irish (the language).
From Galway, we drove to the Cliffs of Moher and spent the night in Doolin. The drive was awesome, and so are the Cliffs. I’m not sure the Cliffs are more deserving than the Napali Coast (Kauai) of being in the running for one of the 7 Wonders of the World. No knock there, though. Just an example of why such lists are silly. Doolin has a good traditional Irish music scene, and this old man even managed to stay up for it. Good food and stouts, too. 
From there we headed to the Castle Trim, which is a very impressive castle. We had trouble finding a place to stay because the Kings of Leon were in town. So a Queen, some Kings, and a President created more problems than anything else.
From Trim it was off to the Boyne Valley area. We only had time for Newgrange, the Battle of Boyne site, and a cemetery with some crosses whose names I’d butcher, but were cool to see. (They were covered in our Trinity going girl’s class on the Vikings, so we had to visit them.)
Basically, we enjoyed every place we visited, and couldn’t have had a better time. Strong interests in history, geology, and linguistics within the family were part of that, but so were the Irish themselves. I think I could adopt or marry the whole lot.
Now, I’m trying to learn Irish and get it to where my German is: present, but not quite good enough to be useful for communication.
