Having grown up and lived for 39 years just 30 miles west of Nebraska's Irish Capital, and having taken my Parents to Ireland on a splendid 10 day trip in Sept/Oct of 2006, I felt compelled to respond.  1st bit of advice, for a rental car, get an automatic instead of a manual transmission for your 1st time there. We were glad we did, and may get brave and do a manual on our next trip, as I have had extensive driving experience with a manual.  And, while it is scary driving on the left side of the road, it got quite comfortable for me after the 1st 1/2 day.  I had a good co-pilot in the front seat, my Dad, and of course 2 good back seat drivers (Wife and Mother)  Did not have any close calls in over 1100 k driving, but did find myself twice starting to pull into the wrong lane when making a turn after a stop sign....seemed to do better in the round-a-bouts!  Designate 1 person to keep reminding the driver to "stay left"  it does help. We didn't spend anytime in Dublin, as we had just spent 3 days in London, and had enough city for us country bumkins for 1 trip.

As for a GPS....we didn't have one, but as a private airplane pilot I wouldn't be with out one in my plane, as they are a marvelous navigational device. My new aviation GPS has automoblile capability, and will definitely buy the software necessary to navigate in Ireland and take it with us, when we get to go back. We didn't have a cell phone, but it would be handy to have, just to call ahead to B&B's to confirm reservations, or for emergencies. We got along ok with a prepaid phone card, but had to hunt for pay phones, in order to use them. I understand you can rent or buy cell phones over there with prepaid minutes already on them and are able to get them reloaded with additional minutes....some one else may have more detailed advice on this.

As for the 6 or so days you have available to tour outside of Dublin, I would choose maybe 3 areas to spend 2day/2nights at. One might be the Kilkenny/Cashel area. We didn't get to see this area because of a world champion ploughing contest going on at Carlow when we passed thru, so was unable to get lodging. This will be the first place I head to the next time I get to Ireland (hopefully soon! I've been dying to get back there for 3 years!) Our favorite small city that we visited in Ireland is Kenmare. From there you could do the Ring of Kerry, or Berra Penninsula. Both are scenic drives that take most of the day, and will offer numerous stops for the best scenery in the world! It probably depends on how comfortable you feel about driving by then, as the roads are narrow and winding thru hilly and coastal areas. A close second, we also fell in love with the small community of Dingle, and the drive around the Dingle Penninsula. Be sure not to miss "Murphy's Homemade Icecream shop in Dingle (no relation but spent several hours with the 2 brothers that own and operate it, as we too owned and operated "Murphy's Homemade Icecream" in western Washington tourist community for 10 years) Another area where we also enjoyed the scenery and especially the traditional Irish Pub music was in Doolin. You could do a scenic day in the adjacent Buren area, and hit the pubs in the eveing in Doolin. So, maybe choose from: 2 nights in the Kilkenny, 2 nights in Dingle, and 2 in Kenmare, and 2 nights in Doolin You could kiss the blarney stone after leaving Kilkenny on your way west to Doolin, Dingle or Kenmare. That will be quite busy for 6 days, so you may even decide to cut it back to 2 areas to visit. Michelle always talks about the Green blur thru the windshield, and I'll have to admit we did a bit of that too.
You might get your aunt talked into taking you on bus day trip out of Dublin to visit Glendaloch and or Powerscourt Gardens, both worth seeing.
Of course, I hope Michelle and the other experts weigh in, and correct me if I have led you astray. Oh, and if you are a Husker fan..... "Go Big Red"!!!!!  Dan

djnz,

Murphy has given you some very good info. So you have 5 days outside of Dublin? You really must pare down your list or you will have the dreaded "Green Blur Tour" of Ireland. The first thing I would cut would be Rosslare. Not much there but a ferry port.

Driving around Ireland takes time. You wll average 35 mph. A GPS is a good idea for you as is a good navigator.

Sit down with a map, your calendar and your "must see" list. Try to come up with an itinerary. We will be happy to help you fine tune it.

Michele