We've been to Kinsale. It is such a cute village. The day we were there they had blocked off a few streets since they were moving a rather large boat thru town. Very funny to see a large boats going thru this small village.
Bit of trivia for you about Kinsale: Roy Disney owns a castle there. We didn't know how to find it.
When we went to Ireland we landed in Shannon and then drove around the south and then up to Dublin for the last of our trip. We stayed in Cork and Waterford for 2 nights each and explored the areas. Within 5 hours of landing, we drove to Blarney and toured the castle and then bought a Waterford chandelier. No sense in mucking about and wasting time on making a large purchase - get it over and done with early in the trip.