not sure about the north.
a few things i can see...
you'd really have to be certain that the village you go to is cool with a hundred people turning up to go absolutely batshit crazy for a week... having worked with lads from all over the north at home and abroad, i've found that northern lads (and i include donegal in this) tend to go from best mates, to insanely violent in about two heartbeats. just last night while working in the pub i had two seperate northern gents threaten to pull my ears off for asking them to settle down in the pub. thank god for bouncers. secondly, if we pissed off even one person in the village, i can pretty much guarantee that a phone call later the pub could turn into a warzone. anybody remember what the odyssey in creeslough used to be like, or tj's in bundoran for that matter. i could actually see some groups taking serious offense at a hundred of us taking over their local boozer for a week at new years. i know from working with these guys, that us *dublin freestaters* are not at all popular, even among the people of *nationalist* persuasion... this is just my experience.... i really don't think we'd feel all that comfortable.... small groups would be fine i think. a hundred of us could go very very wrong....
I've a lot of very good northern friends here in aberdeen, but when they're full of beer the kid gloves go on. it can be very much like handling dynamite.
secondly.... the weather on the north coast can be absolutely ridiculously cold at that time of year. i mean ridiculous. the atlantic is barely tolerable in kerry at that time of year. i've tried surfing up there late in the year and in the spring, not for the faint of heart...
thirdly, no matter what anybody says. you're legally in a foreign country, and all the fun and games that goes along with that....
we may get overcharged in the ross area. but, and i mean a big but, we are given massively preferential treatment, by everyone in that area when it comes to what we're allowed get away with. pub til 6/7am. no matter what happens, the police are never called. if there's ever any hassle with the locals, it's the locals that get tossed out of the pub. the people in the ross know which side their breads buttered on, but also know what services they provide for us and act accordingly. that pub closes in october and doesn't reopen until the spring, except for the week of new years where he reopens just for us.
i think its worth the extra few quid...
my .02$
allio
p.s. i hope i offended noone in this post, as no offense was intended