Driving Ireland

Consider flying into Shannon which is closer to your destinations and is less congested driving out of the airport area. The roads are narrow, however, and you will go through several roundabouts which terrifies some people. I’ve driven the area twice and enjoyed the change/challenge of driving a manual on the left side of the road.

1. Don't drive after a long, exhausting flight. It's dangerous to you and others, and completely unnecessary (see next...).
2. If your initial destination(s) are far from Dublin, don't start driving in Dublin! Take a bus (aka "coach") right from the airport terminal across the country to Galway. It's cheap, easy as pie, comfortable, and a no-brainer. The bus has big windows, you can enjoy the scenery, has wifi, and is a great napping environment (you'll be tempted to catch some Zee's). Get off in Galway, spend your first night there, next day wake up refreshed and ready for the challenge of driving wrong-side.
3. Take the driving tasks seriously - as serious as the high-speed head-on collision you’re hoping to avoid. In rural areas, many roads are narrow (the motorways are not hard, except for the roundabouts...). You need a left-seat co-pilot, and they need to take their job seriously. Their job is to remind you to drive on the left side of the road (repeatedly reminding the driver of that, and helping "spot" your distance from the edge of the road and oncoming traffic) and taking care of navigation, and every other possible task, while the driver concentrates entirely on doing the driving and avoiding the crashing (that's plenty).
4. There's lots to see in western Ireland (IMHO, the best stuff in the country), and a car is required to see more than a little of it and do it efficiently. But there is zero reason to drive across Ireland (coming or going to the west coast). Take a bus, or the train.
5. Flying into Shannon sounds great, and would be if you can make flights work, but most folks find it much cheaper/better to simply fly in/out of Dublin - there are just so many more/better/cheaper flights there. Sure, look into Shannon, but most folks give up on that and just fly to/from Dublin, despite the extra logistical work you'll need to do.

Getting out of Dublin is no big deal. We stayed about 4 miles off the airport property overnight before hitting the road to the Southwest.

The main roads are okay to navigate. But we found the off the beaten path roads to be pretty terrible in Ireland. You have to be a better than average driver there since the roads are rough, crooked and often there are ditches on each side of the road We also found shrubs to often be right up against the roads--scratching the car.