Sorry, we are not shipping to your region at this time.

"Not Available At This Time
Sorry, we are not shipping to your region at this time.
Please contact us for alternate arrangements."

On test account. WTF? how can I get this off so region doesn't matter? shipping is free to everywhere.

Sounds as if you may have Zones set that will not allow any of the Shipping Modules to display so you are getting that warning ...

Have Ireland (IE) defined in countries, zones and zones definitions

Tax classes and tax rates are all deleted cos tax is included in price shown

In shipping, all is turned off except freeshipper, zone option set to none. doesn't make any difference if I set it to Ireland though.
Do I need to turn on freeoptions as well if all shipping is free?

even though I have only free shipper on, the estimate shipping button shows, but it just pops an empty window.

The Free Shipping freeshipper Shipping Module shows when the Shipping is Free and turns off the other shipping modules ...

Example:
All products are marked Always Free Shipping ...

All products have 0 weight and 0 weight is set to mean Free Shipping in the Shipping/Packaging ...

Free Shipping Options freeoptions is designed to show at the same time as other Shipping Modules and offer Free Shipping as an option based on a given condition of the Total or Weight or Item Count ...

OK setting that option in shipping/packaging seems to have solved that, thanks folks