Itinerary help for 5 days

I'm not sure I follow your itinerary, it sounds like more than 5 days! Saturday and Sunday nights in Dublin, Monday night in Kilkenny, Tuesday night in Galway, Wednesday night somewhere near the Cliffs of Moher, Thursday night near the RoK, and Friday somewhere near Galway again, and flying home from Shannon Saturday? That sounds like you have seven nights on the ground in Ireland.

I think most of this sounds pretty good, except for a few segments where you will be really doubling back and spending extra time in the car. If your plan is to do Kilkenny, the Rock of Cashel, Tullamore Dew, and get to Galway all in one day, that sounds like too much to me. Your plan also sounds like you'll be driving south to the RoK, but then back north of Galway to Connemara, and then back to Shannon to fly home, which would also require a lot of time in the car.

If I am right and you have seven nights in Ireland, I would suggest two nights in Dublin, one in Kilkenny, two in Killarney, and two in or near Galway. Spend your two full days in Dublin, and do not rent a car there. Pick up your car on your way out of Dublin Monday morning (hopefully early). Get down to Kilkenny by mid-morning and sight see, spend the night there. On Tuesday, drive from Kilkenny to Killarney, stopping along the way at the Rock of Cashel. Wednesday, drive the RoK, stay again in Killarney. Thursday, drive to the Cliffs of Moher (this is a good 3 hour drive, so get an early start), then drive through the Burren on your way to Galway. On Friday, if you want to get to Tullamore, head there then, and on your way back to Galway, stop at Clonmacnoise. Then you'll have a relatively short drive from Galway to Shannon on Saturday morning. Galway was our least favorite stop in Ireland, but it is a convenient place to stay, with plenty of restaurants and pubs.

Personally, my favorite part of our trip to Ireland was Dingle, so if you wanted, you could swap the two nights in Killarney and driving the RoK out for two nights in Dingle and driving the Slea Head road. We enjoyed the pub and music scene in Dingle more than anywhere else. But Killarney and the RoK would be great too.

To me, this sounds like rushing all over to check off items on a must see list.

Way too much driving.
With 5 days, pick 2 places.

If you already have your plane tkts into Dublin, then head either north (Newgrange) or south to Wicklow mountains and Rock of Cashel.

I would agree with diveloonie, with just five days this is far too much driving. I would also suggest just picking two places to spend most of your time. Start with your two days in Dublin then either head south to Killarney, or west to Galway and then south. With your current itinerary you are doing far too much driving and back-tracking. Although, you seem to have either miscounted, or made a typo on the number of days you have as you say you fly in on a Saturday morning, and fly out on a Saturday. That does mean you have more days on the ground. Try to stick to either the east or west side of the country when you leave Dublin, don't try to do both. So, if you land in Dublin on Saturday and spend the rest of that day and all of Sunday in Dublin it is a short stay, but you could add a day here and do a day trip to Newgrange from Dublin on Monday. Then on Tuesday pick up your car and head to Kilkenny, but here you could also change your itinerary and go to Glendalough first, and then to Kilkenny. On Wednesday you could spend more time in Kilkenny in the morning, then stop at the Rock of Cashel on your way to Killarney in the afternoon. Then spend the rest of your time in either Killarney or Dingle before flying out on Saturday. If you go the other way you could still start your trip the same way in Dublin, pick up your car on Tuesday and head for Galway, make a stop at Clonmacnoise along the way. Then on Wednesday stop at Cliffs of Moher on your way to either Killarney or Dingle and finish your trip there. I know you want to see everything, but when you try to cover too much ground you actually end up seeing less because you have less time to stop and enjoy yourself. Don't plan too many stops in a day as this will allow time for those spontaneous things that may come up along the way.

I agree with the others. With just 5 days you want to be able to savor Ireland, not rush from one destination to the next. The itinerary you've outlined might not even be humanly possible, and surely would not be any fun.

Since you enjoy hiking and scenery and want to soak up local culture, choose a location in the countryside outside of Dublin such as the Wicklow Mountains. You can even get there by bus if you prefer not to drive. https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Dublin-Airport-DUB/Wicklow-Region

Return to Dublin for your last night or two before flying home.

I know it is easy to get caught up in the hype, which to me seems worse for Ireland than for many other countries: you MUST see so-and-so; no trip to Ireland is complete without so-and-so; don't miss so-and-so!!! The fact is that an enjoyable and memorable trip consists of those moments and hours when you get to relax and soak up what is special about the place where you find yourself, not running down a checklist of famous sights.

Thank you to everyone-very helpful advice! We can’t do everything so we are trimming back, and will enjoy what we can. We appreciate your ideas!