Getting a head start

I am not really sure where to start, but here goes.  My wife and I are thinking about moving to Ireland.  My great-great-great........grandfather, 5 generations back came over from Ireland so I am sure that does not qualify me to use them to get citizenship.  My real question I guess is about dual citizenship.  I would like to retain my us citizenship since I am currently in the US Army and will be drawing a retirement check in a couple years, so that is where the question comes.  Will I be able to claim Irish citizenship and still retain a check from the US Government?  Would I just claim dual citizenship to achieve this or not?  How would I go about getting an Irish citizenship?  As far as working in Ireland I am pursuing a degree in nursing, would that be able to switch over to Irish work or what would I have to do to get work in Ireland in the health field (nursing) as far as certification and such.  Help in these questions would be greatly appreciated, at least a push in the right direction as to where I need to look.  I have a couple years to research and plan for this move so there is no real rush, I just would like to start with the planning now so that I can get any financial things out of the way now.  Thanks.

I am not sure that there are many experts in Irish immigration on this site, but a good place to start is here http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/services/visa/

Victoris

Will I be able to claim Irish citizenship and still retain a check from the US Government? 

Yes.  VA benefits, military retirement, and so on are independent of citizenship.

I had checked into Irish citizenship a couple yrs ago as my great grandparents were from there; to gain citizenship through descent (sp?) it only goes back as far as grandparents. 
http://www.irlgov.ie/ 
That's the link to the Irish government website, might be a good starting place for looking into things.  Good luck!

I forgot to add the link to the Nursing Board site.  http://www.nursingboard.ie/
I have a friend from Florida who is currently on a 2 yr visa in Dublin working in sn area hospital.  She is an RN and didnt have any trouble registering with the Irish nursing board (other than it was a bit time consuming.)  As far as citizenship, the current requirement is living/working in Ireland for 5 years before you can apply for citizenship.  (3 yrs if you are married to an Irish citizen).  I hope this helps

Thank you all for the replies.  They are helpful and I am really looking forward to the whole move, even though it is still a couple years in the making.   Thanks again for all your help, and any help to come.