Before someone gets the wrong impression here, I didn't say it was almost impossible to have goods shipped to Ireland/Eire from the UK. A few random points though:
1. The companies in question are under no obligation to ship to Ireland, so I have no gripe with them.
2. Credit Card Security lies behind MOST of the difficulties. Many companies will not dispatch high value goods to an address that is not the cards registered address. So if it won't fit in my letterbox, I'm stuffed.
3. Some sellers will post to Ireland but insist on a UK Post Code verification during the sale, doh!
4. Other sellers will post to Ireland but are not geared up to use the Royal Mail, preferring to let UPS or DHL or some such do the collection and the math. So £20 postage can morph into £80.
5. Other sellers get it just right. Our favourite trade ribnobber,
ribstuff has established a forward cache of supplies here and happily dispatches stuff all over Ireland at very reasonable rates. Good lad that!
6. I have great hopes for
Codprawn, next time I'm trying to move a pallet in this direction.
, not to mention a couple of discreet bank accounts. 
