Bus travel in Ireland

Ireland can be challenging without a car, but buses are a good way to go a lot of times. If a car is out of the question, you might want to consider visiting fewer places for longer periods of time. I have taken buses in Ireland and the stations are not as busy as what you might see in other parts of Europe. Depending upon the time of year, and how soon your trip is, you might want to close on places to stay shortly after booking the flights. Don't give up or panic, only the two of you know how severe your husband's physical limitations are, but don't give up. A bus tour would be another option. One thing to be aware of is that legroom on public buses can be very limited, worse than a coach seat on an airline. I would not want to take a bus for more than two or three hours, based upon my experience. This is not unique to Ireland, I had the same experience in Czech Republic and Poland.

If I might ask what are your ages? When and where did you last travel? What were you going to visit in Ireland and N Ireland?

Public transportation in Ireland isn’t that efficient. Yes there are trains and busses but both are time consuming save for the easy 2 hour ride between Dublin and Belfast.

Cliffs of Moher would be tough for anyone with mobility issues.

Either go with an organized tour or cancel the trip. Dealing with a bunch of public buses with someone mobility challenged is.not the way to go.
We just returned from Ireland with my wife in a wheelchair. It was no problem at all with a rental car.
We have rented cars all over the world and I can say Ireland is not the place for a marginal driver to rent a car. The roads down on the southwest coast were narrow, very crooked and double rough. Even driving in Dublin is miserable driving with all their crooked streets changing names every 1/2 mile.

Thanks for your responses! To Claudia: My husband will soon be 77 and I am 73 and our trip last fall was to Sicily for 25 nights, which we did on our own, mainly by bus. It was strenuous and I kept telling my husband, "Just remember; this is our LAST trip!" But, I really like to travel and we have done trips with tour companies, but I think my husband walks too slowly to keep up now.
The itinerary I have planned is: fly to Dublin, take a train to Waterford for 3 nights, buses to Dingle for 3 nights, buses to Doolin for 2 nights, bus to Galway for 2 nights, buses to Londonderry for 2 nights, train to Belfast for 4 nights, and train to Dublin for 5 nights!
Any more suggestions will be appreciated!

I would not cancel the trip, but I would modify it to spend less time on buses and more time on trains. Also, you don't have to fly in and out of Dublin, you could fly into Dublin and out of Belfast (if you want to see the northern parts). Also, try not to move locations so much by spending three or four nights in towns where you can find some guided day trips to see the things you want to see. The main places that are easy to get to by train are Dublin, Galway, Killarney, Belfast, and Cork (although I personally would not use Cork as a base). These are all towns that are large enough to have lots of options for day tours, and you can get to all of them by train. I can understand wanting to stay in the smaller towns, but getting to most of them by bus is just too time consuming, and then once you get there you have to have a way to get to the sights you want to see. Google guided day trips from various locations and see what is offered from each place. I think you will find that you will be able to customize your trip more this way than going with a tour that may go to a lot of places that won't suit your mobility issues.

Well, I am giving the update on our plans! My husband came to me and said he believes that he can do this trip and deal with the buses! The price for the Delta tickets went down slightly, so I have bought them. I'll just try to make the trip easier for him any way that I can. On past trips, folks have helped me with my luggage, when he was the one needing help!

I strongly agree that it would be better not to change locarions/hotels so much. We just returned from trip to UK where we stayed in 7 different hotels and 6 different cities in 14days. Our travel was mostly by train, including 2 day trips from London. Our 22 yr old daughter and I were glad to finish our last train ride and there was one day that I was out by myself and had to text my daughter to find out our room number because we’d had so many! Miving around a lot is really tiring even when you dont have mobility challenges.

Another option, although not a budget one, is to hire a private driver. Kenmare taxi has Paul Brown, you can check out his website and he has excellent reviews on this forum. There is also a private driver in Doolin, whos name escapes me right now. Taxis are also widely available. You could do a combination of train, bus and taxi!

You could always use Dublin, Galway and Belfast as home bases. They all have good train stops, and are great bases for venturing out for day trips. That way you wouldn't have to cram into busses, and can venture out if you feel up to the task or just stay in town if you want to rest.