Help with slower paced itinerary

I am heading to Ireland this next summer with my two girls ages 11 and 14. I have been once before, but they have not.
I would suggest picking a couple of counties and concentrating on those like you have listed.
If you flights are booked already into and out of Dublin, I would concentrate on the north, the south or the west coast.
We are doing the southwest.
Either of the itineraries you have listed would work. 4 nights and you will be rested before you move on.
Our itinerary is;
3 nights Dingle
1 night Kilkenny
2 nights Kinsale
1 night Shannon before we fly out. We only have a week.
So pick an area and concentrate on that, this will limit your driving.

There are a number of travel agents/consolidators like Tripmasters.com that have canned fly and drive packages for Ireland and/or Scotland. I suggest you see their itineraries for well rounded trips. They can also book you into hundreds of small hotels and B&Bs.

We went with our kids in the summer of 2016 when they were 11 and 8. This was our itinerary and I would for sure NOT skip Dublin

We flew in and out of Dublin
Night 1, 2 and 3: Dublin: Kilmianham Gaol ( pre-purchase tickets online), St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublinia ( kids absolutely loved) Triity College and book of Kells ( again pre purchase tickets), St Stephen's green, lots of walking around Temple bar, hop on and off bus

Night 4: Kilkenny: medieval mile, Kilkenny castle.. on our way out of Kilkenny we did Dunmore caves.. they were absolutely amazing. We had the best tour guide for this.
Night 5 and 6: Killarney in our way to Killarney we did Blarney Castle. The grounds are stunning and we all really enjoyed it.
In Killarney, we rented bikes and biked the National Park.. stopping at Roc waterfall, Muckross house and farms etc. It was gorgeous. We also did Kissane Sheep farm while in Killarney. They do sheep herding and shearing demonstrations. We all loved it.
Killarney was really not overrun with tourists the way that I had read in books or on here. We loved the area.
Night 7 and 8: Dingle. We drove the ROK on our way to Dingle and we highly recommend it. We stopped at a lot of villages and had a picnic on the beach. We also took the 'long way" and did the Skellig discovery centre and Valencia island.
We loved Dingle. We walked the town, went to Inch beach, did the harbour cruise to see fungi the dolphin, drove the wild atlantic way etc
Night 9 and 10 Galway: On our way to Galway from Dingle, we stopped at Bunratty castle and folk part as well as the Cliffs o Moher. Highly recommend both. We pulled into Galway later in the evening but the stops were so worth it. We had originally planned on doing the Aran Islands from Galway but the weather was awful so we stayed around Galway.
Night 11: Cong Here we spent the day at Ashford castle and did the falconry experience. The absolute highlight of our trip. We talk about it all the time. We were up early the next day and split up to do horseback riding and archery. We then slowly made ou way back to Dublin
Night 12 Dublin by the airport for our flight home the next day

We made awesome memories. By far our favourite family trip. We met so many locals and had a grand time talking to them, my kids loved hearing from other kids about school and activities etc.

If I can be of any help, feel free to dm me

I love that you're doing slow --- not many tourists I talk to really ask about that!

I suggest 3 nights in each place you choose to stay..... Seriously, every place I've been to in Ireland, that I stumbled upon knowing nothing about, has had weeks of experiences with amazing things to do!

Pick 3 villages (not towns, as you tell us you don't want THAT with your Killarney comment!). And since I live on the ROK I can assure you it's not as touristy as the bus companies want you to think.... they just all pass through the cool places!

Susan
Expat living in Waterville (yes, Ring of Kerry!)

Thank you. Appreciate everybody’s responses!