Ireland

from my usenet mail:-

You are on the hairy edge of finding records. Civil Registration in Ireland began in 1864. In the early years many were not registered because of ignorance of the law. Family History Library http://www.familysearch.org has the civil indexes for BMD in Ireland from 1864 to 1922 for all Ireland and to 1958 for the Republic of Ireland. (I'm not sure of Northern Ireland after 1922). At the page shown above select search records pulldown list and click on record search pilot. Otherwise contact Public Record Office of Northern Ireland http://proni.nics.gov.uk/index.htm.
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The National Library in Dublin has microfilmed copies of all available records in Ireland up to 1880.
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City also has most of those and they can be viewed at most local Mormon Church Centers by requesting the local center to obtain the film from Salt Lake City. You generally have two weeks to view the film when it arrives. There is a nominal charge for postage.

This service is also available if you are a member of NEHGS in Boston.

There is also the IFHF and related County Heritage Centers in Ireland. Not all counties are available.
You can search the indexes on line for free. Some county records are accurate some not so I am told.
In some instances you can visit the local parish priest in Ireland and view the originals. This has been discouraged because unscrupulous persons have damaged the originals.

My own personal experience has discovered misspelling of names mainly because my ancestors could not read or write and whoever recorded events spelled names the way they felt was correct.