Ireland

Depends how you go.  The ferry from Liverpool apparently takes 8 hours by its self so you could easily build a route that takes that long.

You could also fly in about 45 minutes.

Taking the train from London and the ferry from Holyhead should be closer to 6.

eek!! on a coach perhaps?  

Going to have to ask the company tomorrow.. but yes, I think I'm on the bus.  Then on a slow boat.  How slow, and how many chickens I have to bunk with, no idea yet.

how cheap was it?

I vowed I'd never long distance coach it again after my £11 return trip from London to Edinburgh/Glasgow. I think I already forgot the agony and booked an overnight journey from London to Brussels for £35. I've done it before and it is handy that the ferry breaks up the journey... but yikes 14 hours!!

400 euros for everything.. breakfasts, hostels, the tour, admission fees to stuff. It's 12 days now, as this 14 hour malarkey isn't part of their usual plan.  They said it was due to ferry schedule changes.  I'll be off next Saturday!

The buses/ferries/extra days of accomodation work out to about 70 euros of the total.

Now is not the best time to remember how much I hate buses and ferries.

Very cool. That's not bad at all considering it is around €33 a day. Are you going on an actual coach or a overland truck type vehicle? The ferry will mix it up a little at least. 

Have a great time.

I like this tour company too. They do great weekend and bank holiday tours at a good price.
http://www.tracks-travel.com/

It seems to be a minibus.  I tried to link to a photo, but can't get out of the slideshow mode.. so here's the whole site.  Their hostels look OK, too.

http://www.paddywagontours.com/

I seem to have a choice of arriving at Shannon or Dublin. Which one is recommended?

Depends what you're doing. If you have a reason to go to Dublin, or you'll be spending a lot of time there, Dublin.

For anything else, like if you're touring the country, definitely Shannon. It's a much less hectic airport.

I just read on BBC that one of their (Paddywagon Tours) buses was set on fire last night in Belfast. They said this is the second time this has happened.
See Youth Hostel Tours bus burned out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7236558.stm

that is really sad 

Wah, I need to un-see that news.

Belfast is nice that's why it is a shame a few hoodlums trying to make a statement succeeded.

Go have a great time.

Belfast really is nice. I've been here for 14 months and the only time I've ever felt unsafe was when we got in the middle of a bunch of rowdy football fans! (We'd only been here two weeks and didn't know it was a football match...)

Don't worry. When I came for my interview, I read somewhere that Northern Ireland is the second safest place in the world for tourists, Japan being the first.

I've never been to N.I. myself (although I've been within a couple of miles of the border in Co. Cavan), but according to the statistics the overall crime rate in the province is lower than in England & Wales.

As with so many other places, the news reports only the bad things, which can easily give a very distorted view.