SIM card for two weeks. Recommendation?

Will you be in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland? Or just one or the other?

Republic of Ireland only.

Ireland’s mobile networks offer pay as you go SIMs with very good data bundles. Vodafone Ireland has a variety of plans: https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/pay-as-you-go-plans.html

Three is known for data bundles: http://www.three.ie/plans/sim-only/prepay/

All are well priced but unfortunately they do not allow tethering on their pay as you go plans. You would need SIMs in your own phones.

Have you used your spare iPhone in the past for this? Is it a newer model equipped for 4G data? Which SIMs have you used in the past in Europe, did they have tethering allowed?

I’ve used Orange Holiday before with tethering but it might not make sense to have a French phone number. Will keep you posted if I find a solution.

I have an iPhone 5 (think size and weight here) which I used for tethering in France with Orange and it worked beautifully. I simply made it a hotspot and used it with my US phone when I was away from wifi and had to do unforeseen business. Vodafone sounds like the way to go. Thank you!

I am responding to you because I am not sure what devices you are hotspotting so not sure exactly how helpful this info will be and if you are possibly considering SIM cards for all your phones. We have 3 iPhone 6s (that are our active US Phones) and we got Tesco SIM cards. We were not able to hotspot our iPads. The info indicates you can hotspot with laptops, we haven’t tried. They were 15 euro each for 1000 minutes of talk and text and 15 GB of data. We are on week 3 of using the phones. I have over 10 GB of data left and the teenager who has been streaming Irish Netflix, msging everyone and updating her social media accounts has 9 GB left. If you are looking for navigation and having access to everything the internet has to offer I would highly recommend this. The sales person at the Tesco did everything for us and $45 euro and 15 min later we had 3 connected iPhones. We have had to “reset” the phone on the network so I am in the habit of switching to airplane mode every morning and then verifying that the phone works by calling *100# this also gives me my remaining balance of minutes and data.

This is very helpful. Thank you very much.

I used 3 mobile. It's the best deal I've had to date on a SIM in Europe. I detailed it in my trip report:

"Best local SIM deal ever with "3":

I'm used to paying around 50 euros for phone service on a roughly 2 1/2 week trip, often a little more. Because I traveled all in May. I was able to buy a SIM from 3 (yes, just the number 3) for 20 euros, unlimited everything for one month. This is the best deal I've had to date on SIM service. Their card even worked during forays to UK (Northern Ireland as well as York and Leeds in England).

If I had straddled two months, I would have had to pay another 20 for another month of unlimited service. It still would have been a great deal compared to what I've been getting on the continent - and far better than 10 dollars a day for foreign roaming with a U.S. service."

Very helpful. Thank you.