Can't think of any particular reason to agree with john of hull about Dublin. I found it a pretty lively place but not so much of a 'tourist trap' as some larger cities of Europe not far away. Those with an interest in Irish history and who are reasonably fit can steep themselves in it by just walking around - from Viking foundations to the spot where the men of 1916 were executed - its all there and its all relatively low-key. There are few grandiose monuments shouting to be noticed, as befits a country whose people are survivors rather than conquerors. If you go west and south-west you will get a flavour of the Ireland of the mid-twentieth century, of tiny villages straggling along a road and farmhouses and cottages sprinkled every which way around the countryside, often in harshly newer styles that will take some years to blend into the landscape as the older houses do.