If your talking about commuting to north county dublin, do you really want to go the whole way to Cavan to live? Would north east of Westmeath, the west of Meath be just as good?
Heres a list of possible places to consider:
Delvin, Co. Westmeath (via N3, 77km, pop: 558)
Medium sized village, nearly halfway between Mullingar & Navan
Clonmellon, Co. Westmeath (via Backroads, 65km, pop: 350)
Medium sized village, on the road to Kells
Athboy, Co. Meath (via Backroads, 55km, pop: 6,400)
Medium sized town, but population overstates size, popular commuter town
Kells, Co. Meath (via N3, 63km, pop: 5,248)
Medium sized town, but population overstates size, popular commuter town
Ballivor, Co. Meath (via Backroads, 62km, pop: n/a)
Small village, popular commuter town
Killucan, Co. Westmeath (via M4, 70km, pop: 575)
Really nice little village not far from M4 & Mullingar
Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath (via M4, 91km, pop: 193 (near Mullingar))
One of the most sceanic villages, near Mullingar, lakes, & M4... nice place!
And also:
Oldcastle, Co. Meath (via N3, 84km, pop: 2,226)
Virgina, Co. Cavan (via N3, 81km, pop: 4,796)
Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan (via N3, 90km, pop: 2,240)
Kingscourt, Co. Cavan (via M1, 90km, pop: 2,500)
Shercock, Co. Cavan (via M1, 99km, pop: 1,032)
Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan (via M1, 83km, pop: 1,964)
My favorite if I were you would be Multyfarnham or Killucan, but i'm biased!