Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have literally never heard of Youtube Red before reading this commend. Granted, I live in Ireland, where it's seemingly unavailable but... why isn't this promoted more widely?
You seem to have answered your own question, but you live in Ireland, where it's unavailable: if you live in a place where it is available, it is difficult to not know about it, because YouTube tries to up-sell you on it with house ads.
This is the first time I've seen the service mentioned on HN, which seems surprising in itself.