Sparky,

Glad to hear Ireland is finally in the cards for you this year. Bob (Itallian Chauffeur) has stayed at the Aisling. Hopefully, he will have a restaurant rec for you.

In Killarney try:

Mac's
Bricin
The Flesk
Murphy's Pub

None of them will break the bank. If you want something more upscale, let me know.

Michele 

Michele is right.  We stayed at the Aisling in April of 2011.  We actually ate in the bar area.  If memory serves, it was pretty good and reasonably priced.  Breakfast the next morning was in the dining area on the opposite side of the lobby, which likewise, was decent enough.

Not terribly far (walking distance-wise, but also accessible on the Luas), is Smithfield -- home to the nearly legendary music venue, Cobblestone .  Almost JUST across the River Liffy, South and East of the hotel, is the Brazen Head.  Were it ME, I would ride the LUAS To/Frome Heuston Station, after dark, as the stretch of street between the hotel and Smithfield, while doubtless safe enough, IS a bit desolate -- particularly as it passes between Collins Barracks and Croppies Acre.

If you have time at all, though, I REALLY urge you to visit The Acre -- It is a personal favorite location of mine.

Some info, from a REALLY old post of mine:

Croppie's Acre is really more a state of mind. The actual grounds are very low key and unimpressive visually, but it is the intangibles that touch me most.
During the time of the 1798 Rebellion, the Acre was unreclaimed swamp land that drained off into the Liffy. What is now Collins Barracks was an English Garrison. Many Rebels were brought there to the Garrison and publicly executed. Afterwards, their bodies were dumped, unceremoniously, into the adjacent marshland that served as the barracks garbage heap. Among the most notable victims were Matthew Tone (younger brother of Wolfe Tone) and his comrade in arms, Bartholomew Teeling (hero of the Battle of Collooney). Both were commisioned officers in the 1,000 man French Expeditionary Army that General Jean Arable Humbert landed at Killalla, Co. Mayo and stormed through Ballina, Castlebar and most of Connaught, before finally succumbing at the Battle of Ballinamunck, in Co. Leitrim to the 10,000 British troops, under the command of Lord Cornwallis and the Butcher of Vinegar Hill, General Lake.
Despite the British assurrances given at the time of surrender, of fair and honorable treatment of his men, Tone and Teeling were singled out as "traiterous Englishmen".

Their's are just two of the Ghosts that haunt the unassuming Acre. So small a space could never really contain such men as they. Their spirit echoes through out Dublin, just as it lives through all of Ireland.
I AM a bit of a History buff and, no doubt, a bit of an old-fashioned romantic, I suppose. There really isn't much to see in Croppie's Acre, but each time that I am in Dublin, that fact doesn't stop me from looking. 

 From the web-site: http://homepage.eircom.net/~eirenua/aug98/saoirse4.htm

In a four-month period over the summer of 1798 the brutality and savagery of the English forces, including Irishmen in the service of the Crown, had cut down almost 30,000 people, more than died in all the years of the French Revolution.
Here, between the Royal Barracks and the River Liffey large holes were excavated and into them were thrown the bodies of the insurgents of Dublin city and county and the neighbouring counties of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow.

Robert Emmet wrote of this Croppies Acre:

No rising column marks the spot
Where many a victim lies
But oh! The blood which here has streamed
To heaven for justice cries.

Unconsecrated in this ground
Unblest by holy hands
No bell tolls its solemn sound
No monument here stands.

But here the patriots tears are shed
The poor mans blessing given
These consecrate the virtuous dead
These waft their fame to heaven.

Five years after these mass graves were opened and closed, Robert Emmet himself was hanged in Thomas Street, where our parade assembled today. We do not know where Emmets body lies but his memory is safe in the minds of the Irish people.
We do not know how many croppies are buried here. It was certainly hundreds, and possibly a thousand or more. Matthew Tone, Theobalds younger brother and Bartholomew Teeling of Lisburn, Co Antrim are probably among them.

 From an Orange Order song from the time of the 1798 Rebellion:

O Croppies, yed better be quiet and still,
Ye shant have your liberty, do what ye will,
As long as salt water is found in the deep
Our foot on the neck of the Croppy well keep.

Down, down, Croppies lie down . . .

SO much to see and Do -- and NEVER, enough time! 

Bob

If you have extra time while in Killarney I highly recommend the Cherry Tree Walk (pedestrian). Ask anyone where the golden gates are. Walk through them, past Killarney House and along the river. Veer right as there are other offshoots of the pathway. It comes out by Deenagh Cottage where you can get refreshments. You can walk back to your starting point through Killarney town. The cherry trees should be blooming in April.  Gorgeous! 

Take a look at my packing page too: http://www.irelandyes.com/packing.html