Originally Posted by
sdsearch
You can't get to many of the sights in western Ireland with public transport. You either have to rent a car or hook up with tours (big or small; the small tours btw can get you to places the big bug tours can't, because many of thoe roads in western Ireland are too narrow for big buses).
If all you want is pubs, you can find that anywhere in Ireland. If all you want is general countyside, yes, you can get that on rail routes. If you want a sizeable city, you can probably do that on rail routes. But if you want to tour the ring of Kerry, or the cliffs of Moher (or an ancient burial site in that area), no trains go there.
However, there is a train near SNN, though it doesn't go right to the airport. (The airport is between Ennis and Limerick, and there are train stops both places. But you have to catch a bus to one of those cities AFAIK.)
So DUB may be more practical if you're going to use only rail, even if you're going to go to the west.
My experience mirrors yours. To provide a little corroboration for the OP, two years ago, I took a trip to Ireland with my youngest sister. She hadn't flown in years and really only needed me for hand holding on the way over. Once we spent a couple of days in Dublin, we went our separate ways for a week, meeting in Galway, and then splitting again before returning to Dublin to fly out.
She took the trains. I rented a car. The train service from Dublin is relatively good (my sister went to Galway by train and then on a trip earlier this year, to Killarney), but I don't think there's as much service between smaller cities as there is on routes running on a direct line between Dublin and the ultimate destination. My trip took me into the Ring of Kerry as well as into northwest Ireland. I could not have used the train for transportation deep into those areas.
Driving in Ireland is an experience since the economic woes have apparently delayed the further improvement of the Irish motorway system. The roads within a 30-mile radius of Dublin are generally good with some interstate-quality roads (but with American-style rush hour traffic jams), but once you're in the hinterlands, even the roads designated as "national" roads (the equivalent of numbered US highways here) can be twisty, two-lane roads where the posted speed limit is probably the true limit with the design of the road frequently requiring a speed 20 miles per hour lower. I learned that it was probably best to estimate times between two points outside of Dublin by assuming no more than a 35 mph average.
By the way, the narrow roads, the tight parking in cities and towns, and the even higher gas prices in Europe make taking the smallest rental car possible a good strategy. An SUV generally works only if you've got four people and a lot of luggage.