14 Days in Ireland in late October

I'm assuming you have a guide book and have started initial planning. DK Eyewitness Ireland is a good place to start. It has lots of photos and enough detail to get you started. It also covers places ignored by the oither guides. It has suggested itineraries and the maps are adequare for initial planning.

Are you planning to spend any timne in Dublin? If so, consider flying into Dublin and then out of Shannon as it seems as if most of your time will be spent in the south west. If not wanting to visit Dublin, consider flying in and out of Shannon.

Will you have a car?

Looking at your suggestions, you have virtually got the 14 days covered with bases in Killarney or Kenmare, Dingle and then Doolin. Dingle can be explored from Killarney but that would involve longertravel times in the car.

Killarney/Kenmare - Ring of Kerry (go and find the stone ring forts) and also include the Kerry Cliffs. There is Killarney National Park to discover with its lakes, Torc waterfall, the ruined Ross Castle, Muckross House and Traditional Farms, Gap of Dunloe.... If time allow also think about a day trp to Ring of Beara.

Dingle - Slea Head with all its attractions can easily fill a couple of days. Visit Tralee. Use the Killimer/Tarbert ferry between Dingle and Doolin rather than going to longer way round via Limerick.

Doolin - for its music, Cliffs of Moher, Burren (it's limestone scenery is complertley different to anywhere else in Irreland. Go and find the ruined Corcomroe Abbey. Aran Islands can be done from Doolin. Do try and spand the night on them rather than just doing as a day trip.

The only other suggestion would be to spend a few days in County Galwa to explore Connemara. You could stop in Galway itself or else a smaller town like Clifden. Scenically it is good as places south and you can also do a rip to the Aran Islands from here. The Sky Road Drive from Clifden is well worth doing and on a sunny day is possibly one of teh best short drives in the world. There is the ruined Aughnanure Castle, the Victorian Kylemore Abbey and its gardens, do a cruise on Killary Fjord....

We are planning some time in Dublin. We thought to fly in there and spend day 1 getting over jet lag (Saturday) then Monday and Tuesday leaving either Tuesday afternoon or Monday morning.

I should have mentioned that we are planning on renting a car as well. Should we be planning time in Galway, Limerick, or Cork?

Here is Rick's advice re: an itinerary for Ireland:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ireland/itinerary
And here is his advice on building an itinerary in general:
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/itinerary-tips

The previous commenter's recommendation to get a guidebook is well taken. There is also a wealth of information on this and other sites on the internet about the well-trod tourist ground of Dingle, ROK, Moher and Aran.
You asked about Galway, Limerick and Cork, but you said you are interested in "smaller towns." This suggests you haven't really started your research, as these are the three largest cities after Dublin and Belfast.

I should have been more clear in my question. We’re more interested in hiking and smaller towns. However, I can see aspects of Cork (English market, cork city gaol, pubs and food scene to be fun for part of the trip). If we were to factor in a couple of the cities in the itinerary, what would be your recommendation?

With only 14 days you are going to have to be very focused on what you want to do/see.

Cork will probably need a couple of nights to do it justice. You are already talking about spending three days in Dublin. Add on another day to travel to Cork and at least a full day to 'do' Cork. That is five days out of a 14 day itinerary. It isn't leaving a lot of time for the other things you aree wanting to do.

Forget Limerick - it probably isn't worth investing time in if you are more interested in the smaller towns.

If you do start in Dublin, you will be going past Rock of Cashel on the way to Killarney and it is definitely worth a break on the journey.

The ideas here on the forum have been very helpful. Our preliminary itinerary is:

Fly into Cork (we could fly direct into Dublin getting in much earlier or Cork late afternoon).

Cork - 2 nights (which is really only one full day)
Kenmare - 3 nights as a base: Ring of Kerry (go and find the stone ring forts) and also include the Kerry Cliffs. There is Killarney National Park to discover with its lakes, Torc waterfall, the ruined Ross Castle, Muckross House and Traditional Farms, Gap of Dunloe..Maybe a day trp to Ring of Beara.
Dingle - 2 Nights
Doolin 2 Nights
Aran Islands 1 Night
County Galway and Clifden - 1 or 2 Nights? --too out of the way?
Dublin 2 nights - Fly out the following morning

What we're trying to sort out is if we need a second night in Cork since the first night is after a long day of travel and we won't see much that first day (arriving later in the day). We won't end up with much time in Dublin. Interested in thoughts on timing and route and if there is a better way to do this. We prefer to not move every day (and would actually cut one stop out of another could be a base for a larger area).

We will be renting a car - any recommendations on the best car rental companies in Ireland?

Interested in guided walking in Killarney and Kerry ?

Check this website

Its Mary and Ray Walsh website they offer guided walks and tours in the area

We did a tour with Ray a retired Guarda Officer He showed us places we never would have found on our own
It was a great day out in springtime Contact him wether he is doing walks and tours in late October
We can recommend it

Finding trad music in October will take some luck or research. Try session.org for relatively recent data. Facebook is generally not updated as often as the bars should update. There are a lot of FB pages claiming "trad every Tuesday night" that turn out to be inaccurate as tourist season winds down.

You should find trad in Galway, Cork, Doolin, and Dingle for sure. If duo's doing sing-alongs (think Galway Girl, Dirty Old Twon, etc) are acceptable, there are more of those than real trad sessions.

In Cork, I recommend staying north of the river, maybe at the Residence Inn in Camden Quay. Around the corner is a pub called Sin É that features Sunday sessions. It's very easy to walk across to the center of town where the English Market is. The pubs in the center cater to a younger, rowdier crowd. And if you get your car at the airport, I imagine you'll have a much harder time parking it in that area. Here is a site that shows what's going on in Cork's "heritage" pubs:
https://corkheritagepubs.com

Hi tim.
Regarding rental cars, there is a recent report on NewWay Car Hire on this blog which you have likely seen by now.

We arrived at Dublin airport mid-morning, picked up our car and drove directly to our B&B (Inveraray Farm) which is rural but not really a farm, just west of Killarney. Like you, we didn't want to be on the move each day. We stayed at that B&B for 3 nights; in retrospect, it was the best location of our 2 weeks in Ireland. When traveling around the Ring of Kerry, we did stop at Kerry Cliffs and found that stop to be very enjoyable and the site was very well run. Not far from the B&B is a Tomies Wood Walk (8.5 km) with good views in several spots along the way. Kate Kearney's Cottage is also nearby and does have trad music sometimes, but it was a cover band when we visited.

In Doolin, early in the evening, there was some trad music at McDermott's Pub and the food was pretty good!

We travelled by car for 8 days and spent 6 days in Dublin.

All the best with your planning and travels!