Noise barriers are an integral part of noise abatement measures for road and rail traffic noise. To assess the quality of installed noise barriers in-situ, two standardized methods are used, which assess the intrinsic characteristics of sound reflection (EN 1793-5) and airborne sound insulation (EN 1793-6) under direct sound field conditions on roads. In a long running monitoring project funded by TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland), over 120 noise barrier measurements have been performed in Ireland in the last 5 years. All noise barriers are timber noise barriers and are categorized as reflective and absorptive. The overall performance of typical Irish noise barriers is shown, based on the datasets available. Due to the local climate, not all measurements could be performed with the noise barrier in a dry condition. In the comparison of the results, the measured moisture content of the noise barrier is explicitly analysed and the effect of the intrinsic characteristics of sound reflection and airborne sound insulation under direct sound field conditions is shown. Finally, the obtained results are compared to the typical performance of European noise barriers obtained from the SOPRANOISE project.