please help a noob out

[Patricia]

it is totally legal in Ireland right?

Basically, yes, I think what you want to do here is totally legit here.

What makes you think it is legal in Ireland???????????

What makes you think it isn't?

Here is what I found after searching before in wikipedia:
Prostitution itself is not an offence under Irish law. However, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act of 1993 prohibits soliciting or importuning another person in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution.

Now that can be read a few ways but I at least assumed that unlike in the US, the act of being with a prostitute itself wasn't a crime. So tell me, as I'd hate to get arrested in a foreign country, how risky is it? It seems you can never trust that it's not a police setup here in the US.

Editted to add:
18 is the minimum legal age for a prostitute in Ireland - again from Wiki. Again this is not what you'd see in the laws in the US. Here in Back Asswards Land sex is fully legislated to be illegal.

The act of being a prostitute or using the services of a prostitute is not illegal in Ireland.

It is not legal in Ireland to solicit in a public place, e.g. for you to pull up in your car next to a woman on the street and ask her for a blow job, or for her to stop you in the street and offer you sex for money. However telephoning or emailing an escort is ok, because this is not soliciting in a public place.

Yes 18 is the minimum age. Any younger than 18 is not ok.

I saw some escorts listed here that said they don't accept calls from landlines. What's the reasoning with that as I'd hate to call from my work or personal cell? No calls from hotel phone in other words?

Most escorts will take calls from your hotel landline. The reason some escorts avoid landline calls is to avoid idiot timewasters calling from public payphones and the sort of reasons Dolly explained also. What the escort may well do, if you call from your hotel phone, is ask for your room number and then ring you back. This is to check you are genuinely a guest at the hotel, i.e. her time will not be wasted if she travels to your hotel. In Ireland over 90% of escort appointments are incalls. There are some ladies that prefer not to do outcalls, so you could get ladies refusing you simply because they don't want to do outcalls, but I'm sure you'll have no probs getting an outcall.

Cause the police told me in ireland that it is ILLEGAL. But It IS LEGAL in the UK and north of Ireland, if the girl is independant. However, in Ireland, if the police are to cause hassle, it will be towards the girl and not the client. I think it is a VERY RARE thing for a client to be bothered by police. In Ireland, they make their own rules. No matter what you find on the internet, if a local policeman wants to bother an escort, he will do it, no matter if its legal or not. Anyway, if you want to be sure you are doing this legally, you will need to go to Northern ireland or the Uk, or Amsterdam.

Not true Dolly. I believe you that a cop told you this, but he was not telling you the truth. The laws regarding prostitution in the UK and Ireland are very similar. They differ in a few areas, e.g. the advertising of escort services is not legal in Ireland whereas it is in UK, but IT IS LEGAL IN BOTH COUNTRIES TO WORK AS A PROSTITUTE OR TO AVAIL OF THE SERVICES OF A PROSTITUTE once you do it in private, i.e. no kerb crawling, soliciting in a public place as explained above.

If you are concerned about staying within the law getting an outcall to your place or making sure you only visit an independent who works alone is best. This is because 2 or more escorts working at the same place could be considered a brothel. Brothels are not legal. Visiting a brothel is not a crime, but running one is. So, whilst you would not be comitting any crime visiting a brothel, it is possible if you were extreemly unlucky, that the police could visit the brothel at the same time as you, decide it is a brothel, and ask for your name, address etc as they could view you as a witness to criminal activity.

Happy punting in Ireland!

Pat x