I've been pondering for quite a while now Ashley.
And I've come to the conclusion that avoiding shade and ensuring maximum exposure to direct sunlight is probably by far the most important factor.
Remember my orchard is in an extreme location on a south slope overlooking the pannonian plain with nothing obstructing the horizon from northeast to west. And even towards the northwest and north it's marginal. So I have almost the maximal theoretically obtainable sunlight from sunrise to about half an hour before sunset in spring as well as diffuse radiation from the entire sky. Absolutely zero shade, nothing in the way.
I do not think actual climate is that much relevant as long as you have full sun and good drainage. We're in the coolest wettest and cloudiest spring of the past 25 years with truly 'British' weather for most of April and May, yet tulips did very well, exhibiting the usual compressed growth and wavy leaves. In my relatively shady garden in Vienna tulips look completely different and often do not even produce flowers.
Regarding latitude and potential solar irradiation surprisingly there is less difference between southern Ireland and eastern Austria in March-April when tulips are growing than one would expect. The difference is mostly in the summer months.
You can play around with tools designed for photovoltaic power generation assessments like this:
https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/#PVPFor an average April in Cork, Ireland you have 80% of global horizontal solar radiation and 76% of direct normal solar radiation (at right angle to sun without diffuse light) compared to my location in eastern Austria. The latter difference is a bit larger because you have more cloud cover and thus more diffuse light which is not taken into account with this measurement.
That goes for the entire growing season of spring geophytes.
Mar-May average monthly horizontal global radiation: 115 vs. 140 kWh/m² (82%)
Mar-May average monthly direct normal radiation: 95 vs. 120 kWh/m² (80%)
Ireland loses a lot of potential direct solar irradiation on long cloudy summer days but it's not that relevant in spring. You still have about 25% less sunshine hours than Vienna in spring according to Wikipedia climate tables but again it's not that prominent compared to summer when it gets really sunny hot and dry here.
Same for many natural tulip habitats, irradiation is not that extreme in spring during geophyte growth where the sun is still low and cloud cover is not uncommon. Amasya in N-Turkey where T. galatica is from has more or less identical irradiation levels as my place for Mar-May. Southern high altitude or desert habitats may receive up to 1/3 more irradiation in spring than Ireland though.
So even though you cannot get the 'baking' conditions many tulips love during dormancy in summer and have to shield them from rain or take them out alltogether, regarding spring sunlight there should be enough in Ireland and Britain - if you can avoid shade. Even if the sun is lower or behind clouds that's still magnitudes more irradiation than in full shade.
Other factors like wind or day-night temperature difference do not seem to matter much, I have grown some tulips under intense LED light in my cellar where I overwinter potted plants like cacti and citrus and they turned out even sturdier than the ones outdoor. You just need an insane amount of light but it's possible. Not very economic though.
