Ok, I will try and make this trip report shorter than my Cotswold one! My daughter and I spent 7 days touring parts of Ireland, flying in and out of Dublin. (I had just finished up a 2-week trip with my husband in England, and our daughter flew in to meet me.) We had an amazing time and I will try and give some of the highlights!
Dublin - I actually had my one travel freak-out moment when my husband and I first arrived in Dublin. He walked me around to orient me to the city before he left the next morning and I felt so overwhelmed - it was so crowded and there was SO much construction everywhere due the the tramline being expanded. I think I was just tired - by the end of our time, both my daughter and I loved Dublin and would definitely go back. My daughter and I took the Historical Walking Tour that originated at Trinity College and it was excellent. Ireland has such an interesting combination of the old and new in terms of the history. I also highly recommend the Guinness Storehouse tour, even if you don't drink beer. You get one free beer with your tour, and make sure you take the option to learn to pour your own. You can then take your beer up to the sky bar on the 7th floor. It has amazing panoramic views of the city. We also went to Riverdance at the Gaity Theater, which is a lovely old intimate Victorian theater. The Irish dancing was spectacular and the cost was very reasonable.
Northern Ireland - We knew we wanted to visit the Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, and we also knew we really didn't want to drive (timid driver alert, here). We took a Paddy Wagon tour from Dublin and had an hour and a half at each of the above sites. We used our time to hike around - both sites were beautiful. I made it over the rope bridge! The tour also stopped at some Game of Thrones sites (pretty - many people on the tour seemed to know the show, though I don't) and Belfast.
Galway - We used Galway as a base to take a couple day trips. The Galway Arts Festival was going on, so there were a lot of street performances and a lot of people. Galway was one of the friendliest places I have ever been. Everyone seemed so genuine and very helpful. We took a Galway Tour Company tour to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. This tour was excellent! Gary, the tour guide, was so knowledgeable. His passion and love for Ireland really shone through the entire tour. One tip is to check the weather and book for the Cliffs of Moher on a nice day so that you make sure to see them. Gary told us that the day before, it was rainy and foggy and the tour never got to see the cliffs. We also took the ferry and visited the Aran Islands. We walked to Dun Aengus and enjoyed spectacular views. Ireland was in the midst of a 36 hour heat wave and our Aran Islands day was HOT. We learned that the island is made of limestone and really absorbs the heat!
Transportation - We walked everywhere in Dublin, though there are many buses around. To get to and from Galway, we took the GoBus, which departed from a location very near to our hotel. I booked online (on my iPhone) and saved quite a bit over the walk-up rate.
General - I hadn't been to Europe in 8 years and I was amazed at how much easier it is to stay connected now. We used a very limited data plan from Verizon, so had to make sure there was wifi so we wouldn't get charged. There is literally wifi everywhere. Pretty much every restaurant had it. We used What's App and Wechat to send texts to friends and family. We were able to book almost everything on our iPhones. I would copy the confirmation page to a pdf on iBooks. Almost every site gives a discount if you book online, even if it is only an hour before. Our chip and non-pin VISA worked everywhere. One tip is to have the server at the sit down restaurants add the tip in before they run the card, as there is no tip line on the signature page.
We had such a wonderful time, and hope to go back one day!