Didn't mean to suggest throwing all your eggs into one more application cycle and giving up if that didn't work out. I just thought reapplying might be worth some consideration. Ireland will still be there next year, and building research connections will only help when it comes time to do summer research and clinical electives.
Ireland does seem to do better than some other countries and it could be an excellent option for you. You have to do what's best for you. Clearly you've done a lot of research, which is good because at the end of the day, ABP is offering a service and trying to attract people to their service, so people should do their own research.
Regarding matching to Ireland/UK. You are
technically correct that it is theoretically possible for you to match to Ireland but your chances are so small that it is actually almost impossible. In 2015, Ireland changed their Intern allocation process so that Intern positions are now allocated in the following order: 1) EU/EAA CAO Applicants 2) EU/EAA and other work permit exempt individuals 3) Non EU/EEA Nationals. Within each category, intern positions are allocated strictly based upon centile (i.e. class rank). No other factor (e.g. test scores, ECs) are taken into consideration.
In 2016-2017, out of the 726 intern position in Ireland, 678 went to EU/EAA CAO applicants, 33 went to other EU/EEA individuals and only 15 went to non-EU/EEA nationals, meaning only 2% (15/678) of positions went to non-EU/EEA nationals. Since positions are given out based upon class rank (people are ranked nationally), you would have to be amongst the highest ranked individuals in the country to secure an intern position, in a country with an extremely high number of international students.
In the UK, the GMC changed the rules regarding graduates of non-UK medical school requiring that they have the right to work in the UK in order to be
eligible for the foundation programme. But if you called and got different information from the UK foundation programme, maybe I am wrong about this? Might be worth double checking though? It is also unclear how Brexit will affect all of this.
Side note: As someone who has lived in the UK for the past 10 years and is going to medical school in Europe I am actually a huge fan of Europe and the European education system. I just think there is a lot of bad information out there. If you do end up going to Ireland, welcome to this side of the pond!