I think it depends on what part of the country one lives in. In the west, where trucks (and sometimes cars) are "workhorses," most of them are standard. And a lot of the ranch vehicles are diesel. I'm sure in areas where power isn't needed, automatics are more common.
This is a pretty big country, Irish. And not all of it is "city."
I can imagine that automatics are more suited for the cities, that's prob where I got that notion from - Irish people coming home from Boston and New York all speak of driving automatics.