I had to spend a few weeks in Shannon for work a few years back. Only work trip that my wife actually wanted to go with me. We stayed in Limerick and it was by far one of our best trips. On the weekends we would explore (mostly the south part of the lsland) and visit castles. Ring of Kerry, Ring of Cork, Jameson distillery in Middleton (my first, but not my last taste, of irish whiskey), we also visited the Cliffs of Moher and went to Dublin for a weekend. A few of my favorites was; we got a personal tour of the castle remains in Adare, the tour guide was an older gentlemen with great knowledge of the area and had the perfect personality, the Flying Boat Museum in Foynes and a restaurant across the street that had the best fish and chips, and mountain biking in Ballyhoura. I packed all my riding gear and pedals but I had to rent a bike in Ballyhoura. It was classic when I said to the rental guy, "we got a problem", and he immediately responded with "No, you got a problem" knowing that my issue was that the brakes were opposite of what I was used to (RH was front brake!!). I did fine with the brakes being opposite until I got too comfortable and was ripping through some downhill berms and went to just tap the rear brake and ended up over the handlebars. Of all the places that we have been, Ireland sticks out as our favorite, the beauty of the countryside and the people.