Ireland uses a special card. It's not that much of a pain to be honest. You can top the card up on your phone if you've got NFC and their app. But of course for

Ireland uses a special card. It's not that much of a pain to be honest. You can top the card up on your phone if you've got NFC and their app. But of course for a tourist, there's a certain amount of on-boarding that could be avoided if they just accepted traps directly from bank/credit cards or phones, and they wouldn't have to deal with replacement cards or an app. Still, the card works on all public transport within the city, buses all over the country, and some commuter trains but not intercity trains (eg: I can go from Dublin to Belfast by tapping the card, but to be honest I'm probably gonna book that in advance anyway to guarantee a seat). Some smaller privately run bus operators also accept the card.