Nah, you couldn't work the Wetherspoon's model in Ireland, mainly because of the cost of getting a licence, itself down to the fact that no new ones are issued. Meanwhile, the LVA and VFI will be jumping around complaining that value and choice in the pub market contributes to binge drinking and similar social ills.
It'd be tough getting cask beer for the estate as well: shipping it from the UK adds excise complications, getting it brewed locally would be difficult unless you got some good reliable suppliers who are set up for it, and ultimately you'd have to make sure it was properly kept by trained cellarmen and shifted quickly enough. Even at Wetherspoon's prices (especially, perhaps) I can't see the public trading up to, as you say, stuff they haven't seen on telly.
