Living in England, I have to say that I haven't been on a train here for five years. We're ladling tax-payer's money into the system on a scale that British Rail couldn't have even dreamed of. I know people that work for Network Rail and 'financial efficiency' is not a term that they use much. Operators have walked away, unscathed, from promises that no sane person can have believed that they could fulfil. Fares have jacked up way beyond inflation. The journeys that I used to take now either take too long or are just not worth it. The complications of knowing just whose trains you are allowed to use and operators hiding opposition trains from their timetables are not for the faint-hearted.
The only train they I've used in Ireland has been Dublin/Ballybrophy and I've never had the slightest problem - my catalogue of disasters over here is too long to go into.
Irish Rail could be better, of course - but it could also be worse and more expensive.