mobile phone in Ireland

Would be helpful to know a little more.

What phone carrier is your phone on? Quite a few US carriers will have international roaming coverage, but it could be costly. Or it could be like Ultramobile where you can make phone calls and texts for a small fee per call.

Do you need a US phone number, so folks back home can contact you easily or would an Irish/British phone number be ok for you?

Do you need to be reachable all the time, or would calling from the hotel's wifi be enough?

Is your phone locked to a US carrier? If so, you can't use a UK sim card (or any other). You would need to use hotel/restaurant wifi to get data, and then use an app to make phone calls.

Does your phone accept esims? If so, you can easily download an esim and buy a 15 day plan. Some esim providers will also provide a phone number, but it will be UK, or France, or some other country's.

There are lots of options, and mostly not very expensive.

I think the OP has a Canadian mobile phone provider.

We have Verizon. My husband uses the full international plan but puts me, as a back up, on the plan where we aren’t charged anything unless I use it and then its so much per day used.

Take a look at Traveltomtom website . They have several recommendations for eSIM/SIM plans according to your phone capability. There are daily, 7, and 14 day plans. You can select data only or data, call and text options. I always use a plan for travel rather than my AT&T $12.00 an international plan. I have WiFi calling for my AT&T line to call back to the US or WhatsApp, FaceTime or iMessage to family and friends.

If you purchase a plan remember to turn off your Canadian phone number unless connected to WiFi as to not incur roaming charges.

I just returned from three weeks, and I thought I'd be good with a data esim to complement my normal carrier, but it wouldnt make calls/text via the data as advertised (might be my carrier), so I bought a Three esim in a shop in Dublin. Less than two minutes to load, E20 for 30 days and 10gb. Could call pubs, restaurants, airlines, etc. with no issues. I already had a GiffGaff esim, but they don't work if you don't pass through the UK first.

Thanks for responding to my post. Unfortunately, my phone doesn't take an e-sim but I appreciate all the helpful suggestions.

There are SIM Local shops in Dublin and Shannon Airports that sell physical SIM cards also W.H. Smith convenience stores. You can also order a physical SIM card FROM Orange Travel and have it shipped to you. Google Orange Travel SIM to purchase one ahead of time.