[PhoenixAzul]

When I was living in Belfast, you couldn't buy things in American dollars. It was pounds or nothing. No Euro's either. When you cross the border from N. Ireland to the Rep. of Ireland, there's tons of these tiny little money exchange spots to get Euro. NI won't take them because the exchange between the pound and the Euro is so low. In border towns that are in the Republic and in Dublin you can use the pound, but in places in the west and south and northwest, it's not as common.

In touristy places like Dublin, you can have things charged/debited as USD, Euro or Pound. It's for their own benefit-- the RO Ireland relies on a lot of tourist revenue, and making the tourist's shopping easy helps them lighten their wallet. Ahh, Celtic Tiger indeed. It was pretty handy actually, but I was so used to carrying pounds. I don't remember if I bought anything in Galway aside from food (I stayed there a few days for my marathon), but I don't think you could do it there. I think in Cork city you can do USD. The less touristy cities are usually a lot nicer, a lot closer to what the country is *really* like, but the money thing is a pain.