If you don´t want to rent a car, I would consider renting near Bray, south of Dublin. A nice little town, and located in the DART line, what can be really handy to get to Dublin. Also the places in the north side of the DART line, such as Howth, are interesting.

If you get your own car, maybe someplace in the Kerry coast (Ballybunion, of course Killarney, and maybe Kenmare). In the south coast, the area around Youghal in East Cork has some good beaches, as also the area around Dungarvan in West Waterford. Nearby you can find a very small Gaeltacht, in An Rinn. That could be interesting.

The best months for me in Ireland are May and June. The days are longer, there is less rain, and you can get bright blue skies. In August, it seems that fall comes suddenly, and it is really quite different to the hot south european summers. The days get shorter too fast, and the rain comes back.

Here you have some useful URLs : http://www.unison.ie/regionals/ http://www.kerry-insight.com/info/towns.html http://www.cork-guide.ie/youghal.htm http://www.ireland.travel.ie/home/

Kind regards, Covadonga Bilbao (Spain)