what is the situation with irish people wanting to study in the uk for a phd?what funding is available?ive heard of the marie curie funding but cant find info on it...i want to study animal behaviour

I´m an irish student currently doing a PhD in the UK and I have a full studentship. Your options are to either apply for PhD studentship which is open to anyone and will include a stipend. Alternatively you can arrange your own funding from places like IRCSET or marie curie and then contact a Supervisor in your area to ask them to come up with a project for you. PhD students are classed as either EU or international and as you are irish then you are EU and therefore are entitled pretty much to everything a UK student gets.

But if you want a resrearch council PhD you have to be British don't you?

I´m not exactly sure, my funding comes from a Research Initative within my university. Have you tried www.jobs.ac.uk? thats where I found my fully funded Phd...also try individual uni websites. Have you a project topic in mind?

Yeah I think you have to be British to be fully funded by research council. However I think they may fund your fees and you have to have to make up difference (i.e stipend.) There are other opportunities as mentioned by J. Depending on which uni you go to you may even be entitled to European Social fund which encourages investment in less well cities/towns to improve access to education in those places!