I'm live in Cork so if want any help or anything, drop me a pm.
You will have to nct it being an 1985 but only every two years as they changes it recently for cars over 30 and tax will only be 50 quid a year.
As mentioned If you've another car that you'll mainly use or use for work, you'll be able to get a classic insurance policy on the landy. Will have a mileage restriction alright of 3 or 5k a year but should only be couple hundred euro a year. If you've other older cars, you'll be able to add these onto the classic policy too for very little.
As for the nct being strict and based on the German tuv, not sure where that info came from as tuv is far more particular.
On paper, it's strict but in practice it just depends on the tester and his mood lol.
Nct center in Cork isn't too bad at all anyway and if its able to pass an mot, it'll have no issue at all passing an nct and as I said, it'll only have to do one every two years now that it's over 30.
You will have to vrt it or other cars to put them on irish plates but you get one free vrt in your lifetime if you've owned a car and lived in the country its coming from for more than 6 months.
Vrt for the series or cars over 30 years now will be cheap so I'd use the free pass to import something abit more valuable.