Ireland in 8 nights

Greetings from Ireland!
I think your itinerary is pretty cool. You're not trying to squeeze in too much. Personally I'd skip Kilkenny and spend 2 nights in Galway, but its all mater of personal taste, I just know from 20 years experience that visitors much prefer Galway to Kilkenny, but the latter is also a very historic city with friendly warm people.
On your way back to Dublin you might want to stop off at Clonmacnoise, quite a beautiful idyllic monastic site. Or alternatively don't do a last night in Dublin, is your flight to the US an early one? it less than 2 hours from Galway to Dublin airport.
Overall though it look a great trip. Best wishes with it.
If you're in Dingle call by to see my 2 beautiful Irish Wolfhounds :)
Le meas/with respect
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland tour-guide
Dingle, Derry & Dublin

I suggest that you consider flying into or out of Shannon, why backtrack all the way to Dublin? Maybe the flight is already booked, I guess. Be aware that some B&B people might not like vouchers, that was the case in 2002 but they might be more accommodating now. I am sure you will be fine if you stick to the B&B directory the agency pointed you to. (My wife and I did a return trip to Ireland in 2016 and we covered many of the same stops in 14 nights. We flew into Shannon and out of Dublin.) I have never been to Killarney, but it has the reputation as a tourist trap sort of place, read Rick's book about this. In County Clare consider Ennis, Grey Gables B&B is great, we stayed there in 2002 and again in 2016. Great Irish music in that town. I think Galway might be stretching it, it's a very nice place to visit but for one night after a full day of sightseeing, does not make a lot of sense. We liked Galway fine, took the bus there directly from Shannon to economize on time with the rental car. It's a nice place stop but did not quite match my admittedly high expectations. I preferred Kikenny on this trip. The weather did not help in Galway though, it was pretty cold in early May 2016. You might want to minimize time with the rental car as it's very expensive, we paid about $70 per day with zero-deductible CDW, which I recommend highly. Stay in Kinsale over Cork, but you will wish you had time to explore Kinsale a bit. For me Charles Fort was amazing. Ireland is a great country to visit, I am sure you will have a great time.

We had 7 nights in Ireland (I wish we'd had more). We were obligated to fly round trip through Dublin. We picked up our car upon arrival and drove to Kilkenny. We spent our first night there. I wouldn't want to drive any farther on arrival day, assuming you are arriving from the U.S. We walked around town, toured Kilkenny Castle and went to bed by 9:00 or so. The following day we stopped at the Rock of Cashel on our way to Dingle. Two nights in Dingle. We loved it there and I hope to return some day. We spent the next night in Galway, stopping at the Cliffs of Moher on the way. We then returned to Dublin for our last 3 nights. I try to avoid staying in the same place at the beginning and end of a trip. With 8 nights I would either add it to Galway or spend a night in Cork or Kinsale.

Kilkenny was a pretty quick visit for us. We did the castle and walked the medieval mile.

I know sometimes Killarney gets a bad rep but we loved it. We rented bikes and biked into the national park to muckross house and to Torc fall. The scenery was gorgeous and I would highly recommend. We also took in a sheep herding and sheering demonstration at Kissane farms. It was so fun to see.
You may have to tweak your itinerary a little in order to make all the stops. e.g. we spent one day exploring Killarney, the park and then sheep farm and that was with waking up in our hotel that was right next to the national park... day 2 we drove the ROK on our way to Dingle. It would be hard/hectic to drive to killarney, do the park and town, the ROK and get to Dingle in one day
Same with your day 7.... you will not have much, if any time to actually see Galway. We left Dingle at 9:15 and did Bunratty, the Cliffs of Moher et and got to Galway at 7:15 pm. We had the next day in Galway... maybe you want to do this and leave Galway later to head to Dublin ( 2 hours or so to get to the airport)
I think many of us North Americans underestimate the times it takes to drive in Ireland.

Have fun.. you will love Ireland!

"I think many of us North Americans underestimate the times it takes to drive in Ireland."

So true!

Thank you to all who responded to my post, I really appreciate your input.

We are locked into flying in & out of Dublin so we do have to back track back to Dublin. It’s nice to know that Galway is only 2 hours from Dublin so we can take our time and explore the city and more on our way back to Dublin.

Stephen, if you wouldn’t stay in Kilkenny, where would you stay in that area? Would it be too long of a day to drive all the way to Kinsale and visit Rock Of Cashel, Kilkenny Castle? We definitely want to go to the southern area of Ireland. We will probably just do the Killarney Nat Park and not the ROK, since we hear Dingle is the better option.

Thanks to all for their input.