Cell phones in Ireland

I hadn't heard of them before, but it looks like a relatively good deal.

When I was just there in June/July I got a cell phone from the O2 network. It was completely free and it was a pay as you go phone so no contacts. The catch was you had to put 50 Euro on it in credit but I was there for 2 months so this was no problem for me. In general, the phones are usually free or very cheap so you should have no problem picking one up when you get there. A good feature was that incoming calls were free so my family in Canada could call me at no charge to myself.

I've also used O2, mainly in Ireland, but it works in the UK as well. The first time I used a cell over there, I rented one here and it came with an O2 SIM card. This was a few years ago, so it was complicated and expensive. After that experience, I bought a cheap phone online from someone in Ireland who had an ebay "store" and just used the SIM card from the rental (that I got to keep). The SIM card worked for 3 consecutive summers. My friends who traveled with their O2 SIM cards this summer had to go to an O2 store to reactivate their accounts. But they still worked. So my vote is to get a cheap phone (here or there) and use O2. (PS - Hooray for Temple City - My mom grew up there!)

I spent all of this summer in Northern Ireland and traveled to continental Europe and Ireland a lot. All in all, it was relatively easy to just buy a SIM card if you use a GSM phone. You might try Vodafone, which had a good deal for like 15 euros (might be expired by now). Vodafone has big all over Europe. I was also able to buy a cheap Motorola w/ SIM and minutes from phones4u.co.uk which cost 10 euros, but that's in Northern Ireland.

My Irish friend did the research for me (as I was completely overwhelmed and had given up!) for SIM cards. She said that Meteor was the best deal. I will break down what the costs were. I got the 10Euro SIM card. The SIM was free and I had 10Euro topped up on my card. This is what the costs were:
--Free incoming calls and texts from other Meteor customers (and one of our travel partners also got a Meteor SIM and then my Irish friend had Meteor)
--$.09 to text
--$.23 to call in Ireland
I texted and called about 40 times both in Ireland and in the UK (and those prices are a lot more expensive) and didn't even use all 10Euro. Our travel partner was in Ireland and UK for 10 days and didn't use all of his 20Euros. Now, with the 20Euro SIM, you get free texts and calls to and from all other Meteor customers. So that's probably why he didn't use all 20Euro. Anyway, my point is, really look at how much you plan to use your phone and decide whether you will really need 50EUROS in a phone. I didn't curtail my phone use at all and didn't even burn through 10Euro. Not to mention, if you're traveling with others and they also need a phone, and you all use the same carrier, it will be even cheaper. From the time we walked into the Meteor store and both got our SIMS was less than 10 minutes. Then I just had to do the whole unlocking thing with my phone and voila, I had a working phone. Plus, since it was MY personal cell phone, I have all of my texts for memories and I was able to take pictures of some of the sights that will always be mine. Just thought I'd give you another option for phones! (Hopefully you haven't left yet!)