Where in Ireland is your friend going? I've been to Ireland a handful of times and will be traveling there at the end of the summer. I always look for tobaccos that are hard to find for us in the states when I'm there and frankly, I'm usually underwhelmed by the the offerings. It's my experience that you may find Yachtsman and Condor plugs, Maltan, Special Virginia, as well as various Peterson tins at newsagents but you have to ask the counter person if they have pipe tobacco available as it's not out in the open. On my last trip there 3 years ago I visited M. Cahill & Son, a tobacconist in Limerick, and was disappointed to learn that, due to EU regulations, they were no longer allowed to sell loose tobacco and didn't have any of their house blends for sale. They did have some Peterson tobacco in stock but the price per tin was roughly three times higher than the average price here. The very lovely woman working at the time told me that if I was looking for tobacco blends by other manufacturers (I asked about GH in particular) she said I'd have to travel to Belfast. This all being said, I did visit Galway on the same trip where I happened to pop into P. Powell and Sons, a music shop, where to my surprise I found pouches of Velvan and Mick McQuaid plugs.
