Dividends and Irish Life Defined Contribution Plan

Each year my old retirement savings in the US has dividends/long and short capital gains (quarterly and at EOY depending on the Vanguard fund) that reinvest into more shares of the fund. So not only does the value of each share move up and down, I get more shares added each year although I haven't touched it in 15 years.

What happens in Ireland or specifically in my IL DC plan?

There are many Irish Life fund choices and you could be investing in any of them in your DC pension scheme. As a general rule, most Irish Life funds that invest in shares reinvest dividends into the fund. Such funds are not usually as transparent as what you describe in the US. So you'd just see a movement upwards in the unit price of the fund without being specifically told that this movement is as a result of dividends being added to the fund.