Time to blow the dust of this thread,
In the nicest possible way...
In the UK you can fly IFR at night in VMC without an IR. In Ireland, you can only fly at night under IFR, which they require you to have an IR for.
Prove it!
May well be that legislation has changed since your post DP but had a 'debate' with an instructor a few weeks back on this and asked him to produce legislation showing that in ROI, in VMC conditions (sight of surface, out of cloud etc etc) at night I cannot fly without an instrument rating.
Im still waiting.