I got mine at London Drugs too! Just the SIM card, no phone. I activated mine on Black Friday so London Drugs' system was a bit slow. They said their machines are really old and when there are lots of transactions things don't work well. After about ...
You are totally right! Now that I think about it, I called from Japan to Canada, and from Germany to Canada. Which is free! But the other way is not free... I did call Japan (something about sumo tickets if I recall correctly) but can't remember how ...
Have you tried Google Hangouts Dialer? It uses wifi / data and can be connected to a phone number is it is like using a phone, but free. I've successfully used it to call Germany and Japan from Canada. Never tried Ireland but I can't see why it would...