As a season ticket holder for an EL club, I know where the OP is coming from.
I love watching live football, and I really enjoy the social side of attending your local team for a home game.
I will admit that sometimes the football is poor, but it can also be very good. I am realistic and know that I will see better skill levels from the likes of Arsenal, Utd, Real Madrid, Barca, Milan, Munich etc, but hey these guys are on £50k - £130K PER WEEK.
And believe me, so many of the English Premiership games now bore me senseless (you see I don't believe the Sky hype when they say that every game is great, especially when its rubbish). If you watch football a lot (be it Eircom League, Serie A, EPL, La Liga etc) then the proportion of good good/excellent games to the number shown is very low. I have watched so many awful Liverpool v Man Utd or Chelsea v Liverpool games that I never get excited any more.
I do have a lot of friends who would ask me "why do you go watch that rubbish" - but thats only their opinion and I have seen some fantastic games over recent years in the EL. And its so sad to see local bars packed to bursting point when Liverpool play Man Utd, and the passion that these fans have for their football, well English football anyway. And they then HATE England so much its almost laughable.
To finish on, I think the problem we have here is Ireland is our love of English/Scottish football. It is so ingrained in our culture now its hard to shift. It will be handed down from father to sons and it will continue. Plus our football is not seen as sexy. The players are obviously not as good but they are paid so much less than the competition. And I would agree that are facilities are not good, and people these days are very discerning and will not go and sit/stand in the rain. They expect the best for their money.