Hitch-hiking was certainly more popular amongst the locals ten or twenty years ago, but it works just as well now - there are more cars on the road and you only need one of them to stop.

A high percentage of the cars that stop will have drivers who tell you that they used to do it and miss it - and some drivers will tell you 'you'll never get a lift there', even as they are proving themselves wrong. Regardless of the drivers' reasons for stopping, it works brilliantly. On the small roads you may even find yourself on the back of a trailer or sharing a tractor cab.

Getting out of some Irish cities requires getting a local bus first to get to the right road - there are details on hitchwiki.org - but most Irish towns are small enough that you can just walk to the right place easily enough.