Good for you for thinking this through and asking about it!
See
http://eumovement.wordpress.com/2007/06 ... -question/
Be sure you document the trip very well. Take a picture of yourself with a daily newspaper outside the Irish embassy!
Note that you might be best off also getting a Schengen visa, and then flying Ryanair to Frankfurt and then to London in order to get passport stamps.
One forum member applied for a residence card in his home country (but did not actually travel) and his wife was issued a Residence Card when this was pointed out. But this may not work, and you would be safer by actually making the trip together.