Hey there newbie
Have you thought about SA? its cheap (roughly £2750 for 4 week PPL incl accomadation), the weather is good and the training is by all accounts excellent. Plenty of Irish and UK guys (and girls hopefully
) go there, I'm heading myself in the autumn. Its easy to convert to JAR when you home but you can excercise all its privilages at home with no problems - you can even revalidate it in the UK.
For more info send me a PM or do searches on this and 'African Aviation' under PPL South Africa.
Good luck Sir
Wingz