Ireland 2011

My experience during and after the French trip suggests that our next tour could be a little less intensive with perhaps 3 days of cycling about 50 to 60 miles and then a rest day doing something different before another 3 days of cycling. I have visited much of both Northern Ireland and Eire over the last 10 years and it is all very cyclable. I suspect the cheapest/quickest way there is by air and there are a variety of cheap carriers serving the main airports (Cork, Dublin, Belfast) as well as less well known places like Shannon, Galway and Knock. There are ferries from Fishguard, Holyhead and Liverpool to Dublin (or Dun Laoghaire) and Stranraer to Belfast. I believe there is also an overnight boat from Swansea to Cork. It would make sense to begin and end the tour near an airport town - most airlines quote single fares so the start and end need not be the same and it is possible to get by train, boat and train or bus to most places which have an airport. Being a sensible country, Ireland integrates its rail and road systems and, even better, the long distance coaches take bikes.
There are 185 tours of different lengths and degress of difficulty on the Discover Ireland website so we should, as suggested, be able to select a number of tours which integrate. We may be able thus to stop in the same place for more than 1 day and do circular trips. There are 26 Youth Hostels in Eire (An Oige is the organisation), scattered around the cities and touristy areas. There does not seem to be a formal organisation in Northern Ireland but there are independant Hostels available. There is also, as one would expect, plenty of B&B accomodation but the Euro exchange rate makes it a tad expensive. Last time I went (2009) I was paying about 50 Euros a night for a single room. If we are to visit Northern Ireland then the area of Eire we could cover is limited to the northern counties unless we transferred by train or bus - both time consuming and expensive.
I have the 4 1:250,000 maps of the island, plus a number of OS 1:50,000 maps for different areas and also most of the Sustrans series for  Northern Ireland (Belfast to Ballshannon, The Kingfisher Trail, The Loughshore Trail and The Sperrins.)
Given time, perhaps I could look through the tours on the Discover Ireland website plus those on the N. Ireland equivalent and come up with a suggested itinerary?
Maybe Keith has some ideas as a result of his presumably numerous visits to relatives there?