Car Insurance

Contact the credit card company for whom you would use to pay for the car rental and determine if, and what type, of car insurance do they provide for a car you would rent in Ireland. I question the value of paying for car rental insurance via travelocity as they are a third party interest to the transaction. The first party is you, the second party is the company from whom you are renting the car and the third party is Travelocity.

We just rented a car through Autoeurope and they upgraded to the 0 deductible collision damage liability for free. We rented an automatic for 22 days for $411. That was about half the price of Dan Dooley which is a local Ireland company. You just have to make sure you are actually getting what you are paying for.
Ours is through Hertz so it was easy to verify.
Good luck.

Also check your home insurance agent. If you have comprehensive and collision insurance in North America, often the coverage will transfer to other countries. Some Eastern European countries are excluded, as is Northern Ireland and possibly Italy.
Your credit card insurance in most instances would be secondary to your primary insurance company--if you're covered internationally.
The Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) offered by the rental car outfit is often third priority--to the two above, if applicable. CDW is required by government regulations in Italy, however the cost of the coverage is relatively inexpensive. Rental companies will throw a personal property theft insurance on the car rental if you don't watch them, and it's a rip off.

If you have comprehensive and collision insurance in North America, often the coverage will transfer to other countries.

I don't think that it is at all true that US insurance "often" covers rental abroad. In fact, I don't know of any US company that would cover you, particularly in Ireland. Most credit card insurances don't cover Ireland, either. And in order for credit card insurance to kick in, you must decline the rental counter insurance. Rental counter insurance would never be third because you won't have it if you rely on credit card insurance. Read the terms of the Travelocity policy carefully before going that route, particularly whether or not to have to decline rental counter insurance for it to take effect.. Personally. I would just go with the rental counter insurance. Costlier, yes, but you know you will be covered for sure.

I agree with Nancy. Ireland is tricky because most credit card policies won't work. I rented through autoeurope.eu (not .com) and got a good insurance deal. Choose your options carefully--especially since driving on the left side of the road is awkward.

Thank everyone for the grand advice! I appreciate the time you took to answer!

We also looked into renting a car in Ireland and the insurance was so high we decided against it and used trains. My credit cards didn't cover Ireland and one other country, and neither did my personal insurance. As others have said Ireland seems to be the exception in coverage. There are credit cards out there that do, we met a couple who's credit card did specifically cover Ireland. Sorry don't remember which one, but the person knew because he read the fine print and specifically researched it.

This is the downside to Ireland (one of the very, very few that I could find) - renting a car is the best way to see it, and it's expensive. Yes, I recommend getting all the insurance, the CDW, the Super CDW. -- all of it. Driving in Ireland is fine, but there are lots of opportunities for dings and dents. And...our credit card has never covered rental cars in Ireland. So, build that into your trip costs. I don't recommend insurance through Travelocity, either. Go with the rental company, and then drive without worries.

Pay special attention to the terms of the insurance- for example the deductible and exclusions. We paid around $700 for a ten day rental this past May, and around $500 of that was for the super CDW! This was through Autoeurope. We were glad we had it because when we returned it a scratch was on the underside of the bumper that may or may or may not have occurred on our watch. Regular CDW usually has a high deductible, around $1500-$2,000 which to me is unacceptable.