First time travel out of US to Ireland

It sounds like Rick Steves Best of Ireland in 14 Days tour would fit the bill. The tour spends a very limited amount of time in Dublin and Belfast if cities are not your thing. The tour eliminates the need to drive and there are plenty of small towns and countryside on the tour. We did this tour in 2022 and loved it. We had plenty of music in Dingle and the last night in Belfast. That being said we opted for additional time on our own in Dublin which has a lot to offer.

Vote #2 for Mary’s suggestion of Rick’s Best of Ireland. It gives an excellent intro to Ireland and Northern Ireland without having to worry about driving.

If you do decide to do a tour, I recommend you arrive a day or 2 early to give yourselves some flex time in case of flight disruptions as well as to get your feet under you after a long flight.

Other tour companies frequently mentioned here include Road Scholar, Odysseys Unlimited, Overseas Adventure Travel (small group arm of Grand Circle Travel), Gate 1, and Rabbie's. Most include sightseeing, transportation, and lodging (and you can preview the lodging "or similar" on their websites). GCT and Gate 1 usually have larger groups and may have pay-extra excursions. Rabbie's is transportation with van (not bus) size groups, a la carte lodging and sightseeing fees. OAT usually includes cultural experiences with locals. Agree with suggestion to start with tour rather than independent travel/driving! Check out the Tours page on this website (video, scrapbooks, and I see there's a Zoom talk about their tours that you can sign up for on Nov 19!) Read Rick's Europe through the Back Door and his (and any other) Ireland guidebooks you can check out of your library. Good Luck!

We did the Rick Steves 14 day tour, and it was awesome!

Another tour company recommendation: Vagabond Tours. They are small- group tours - mine had 16 participants. They run two types of tours - Vagabond, with lots of physical activity (hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, etc.), and Driftwood, which is less athletic, more cultural.

I took an excellent Rabbies day tour out of Glasgow, saw so much in a small mini bus with perhaps 12 others, in August 2019 and it was awesome. Very engaging driver, super quirky, plenty of time to stop & hike in some ruins, in a gorgeous small village with a walkable castle with a spot to stop and have a snack, and ended in a town with a lovely inn where I sat and just had high tea and savored the moment. CAN you do Ireland on your own with public transport? YES. But do you want the hassle and you'd need to plan quite a bit ahead of time & would see more on a tour.

A comment about driving on the 'other side of the road' - Coming from living in SE Asia 19 years where we drove on the same side, it was still daunting. The hedges come RIGHT up to the edge of the small roads and lorries (trucks) can meet you at the turns. I do not recommend this for your first experience outside the US!

In case you would rather travel independently, here are some bus company links and the train website for Ireland, to get you started. You might see what connections you can put together and use that to decide on your destinations.
https://www.citylink.ie/
https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/
https://www.buseireann.ie/

Most of Ireland’s towns don’t feel large, with the exceptions of Dublin and Cork (to me). I haven’t yet been to Northern Ireland.

You need to decide whether to take a tour or bite the bullet and drive yourselves. There re pros and cons for both. There's some good advice about driving in Ireland here. There are many companies offeiring tours of Ireland - great as long as they are going to place you want to visit. Also check out how long they allow in each place and if this will give you long enough to see and do the things that interest you. Read the itinerry carefully.

"See' often implies as you drive past. 'Stop' can often mean a short meal or comfort break. 'Visit' means a longer stop when you actually have time to see something (or go into the place mentioned).

How many one night stops are there? These can be hard work as cases often have to be out early.

BUT you don't have to worry about driving or booking accommodation etc. You also get to meet others (but this may just be fellow countrymen rather than locals).

If you decide to hire a car and drive. you can either do all the planning and booking yourself, or take the more expensive option of finding a company who will plan an itinerary for you and then do all the bookings. That way you gete the holiday you want rather than the staright jacket tour. There are several companies who can arrange this for you - do a google search for 'self drive tours Ireland'. Choose a company based in Ireland and check reviews about them. Email some with details of what you want to do/see and your requirements regarding accommodation etc and see what comes back.

You don't have to choose between driving and using a tour company. The places you indicate you want to go are very accessible by train and bus. If you want to do any of the scenic drives (like the Ring of Kerry), you can do that as a day tour.
Here is the RS suggested itinerary:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ireland/itinerary
I can't say I agree with what to cut if using public transport. For example, the Boyne Valley/Newgrange is easily done as a day trip from Dublin. As above, I think you can find a Ring of Kerry day tour.
It is true that the West of Ireland, north of Galway, is more challenging to access by public transportation.

We did the 7 day Rick Steves tour recently and book ended with our own days on each end. One of those we did a one day tour of Northern Ireland with Wild Rover tours. They were great.

We did not find going by bus easy for us. The service and buses were very bad. The train service is not as extensive as other European countries.

Look at the scrapbooks on the Rick Steves site and you can see where they go. We find it is a very good value for the money.

South, west coast, Belfast. A lot of ground there. In Sept we did only the area between Killarney and Westport and spent three weeks doing do. Your interest in small villages is commendable, but in reality, there is little to do in such places.