CSO sez 953,000 US and Canada residents came to Ireland in 2005. Less than peak (1.074m in 2000) but you could fill plenty of golf courses.
Ireland is not the same as the Maldives or these other kinds of places where better beaches or better hotels are the key. It just isn't. Ireland has a hold over people's imaginations over here you wouldn't believe. We all know it's gone but they don't know that yet. Every second person who I tell where I'm from says they're either going to go or want to go.