I'm Irish, but not in the game making business. I'm not aware of any major game development studios in here, most software companies in general seem to use Ireland more as a convenient tax beachhead than a place to actually make things. There does seem to be a smattering of smaller studios.

That said, I am vaguely aware of several courses in game design that have sprung up in some of the third level institutes here - I know this because they sprung up after I entered college on a more general course! I can't personally vouch for/against them, but if you like living here for whatever reason, there certainly are options to study here. I don't know how highly such game specific courses are thought of (regardless of where you study), I'd definitely recommend researching that.

For reference, I believe that "standard" 4 year university degree here are typically FETAC level 8, so a level 6 would probably not be considered on par with this.

They dont make their own games but certainly without Demonware there is a certain FPS franchise that probably wouldnt be as succesful as it is. They are probably the largest company in the gaming industry in Ireland, that develop anyway. We have a number of support centres here.

In terms of the course, Im in UL doing the games development course there and its quite good. Certainly gives me a good grounding and the work experience program is very useful. Carlow has a good course too. Also Queens university belfast has some really good courses. I know this from meeting the guys at events like Games Fleadh. There are others too but those would be the ones Im most familiar with.

Speaking of middleware, I've read that the Havok physics engine was originally Irish, though some light Googling indicates they have since been bought by Intel.

Looking at the details, they appear to share many common modules, so there are similarities. However, it is a question of emphasis. For example, a gameplay animator will focus on living, moving content that will be included in the final game, where as a concept artist will generally be involved in early stages with static images as the art style is being established. The bigger the studio, the more specialised you're likely to be, in a smaller studio there could be just a single "art" person that does all these things and more.

I'd recommend you watch Double Fine's documentaries about their various projects "Massive Chalice" (free on Youtube), "Broken Age" (available if you back the project) or "Amnesia Fortnight" (free on Youtube), these will give you some sense of the different disciplines and how involved they are at different stages of a project, as well as being entertaining to watch.