Don't forget that you only need a minimum of 15 hours dual instruction for an FAA IR. The rest of the instrument time can be on simulators (look up the limits in FARs) and with a safety pilot. The instrument hours with a safety pilot only need be with a current PPL holder of any ICAO license in any aircraft with no TSA clearance. Everything is in plain english in FAR/AIM. Don't forget the local rules of wherever you fly though! (i.e. thank god the UK ANO is only in the U.K.
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Bose-X, I have heard from many sources that the JAA IR is not terribly difficult, and I believe that. However, many of us are not willing to fulfill the ground school requirements. Maybe that part's even more managable than ever before in the U.K., but where I live there are no distance learning courses available. The issue for me and many others is time. Pilots are above average people, and the subject matter is not exactly rocket science. The spare time I had during one month on the road running my multi-national business, and a set of King DVDs, was enough to get 93% on the FAA written. The written was done on a drop in basis at a computer testing center in the US northwest. If it can be so simple, why isn't it?
Alistair, you're going to need 50 hours cross country PIC to get an FAA IR, maybe you'll have the 100 hours to do a JAA conversion by then anyway. If you need an IR to fly the way you want, the most important things is to go and get it. Don't delay!