Fine tuning.
...
3. If, big if, the weather is good the day you drive to Belfast, consider a quick run up to the Giant's Causeway...
Dublin to Giants causeway is 3 hours drive in each direction. It will not be "a quick run up"
This itinerary already has a very punishing schedule of non-stop days of long driving with small children, without adding another. I am not sure that the OP has also considered that those days at that time of year in Scotland and Ireland could be raining
all day with poor visibility and slower transit times - and what any alternative plan will be!