UK Travel Visa for Chinese Wife(EEA Family permit)

Hey all,

Unfortunately similar threads on this topic seemed unresolved, so I was unable to find much info here.
The www(dot)gov(dot)uk/check-uk-visa website is just taking me in circles also.

My wife is a Chinese citizen with a Chinese passport, I am an Irish citizen with an Irish passport and we live in Ireland.

She is planning to go to England with some mates for a weekend and we can't get any straight answers with regards to the visa.

Supposedly she can travel with an EEA Family permit, which would make the process easier and cheaper, but the UK visa website only lets her apply for one if I am in the UK(?)

As far as I know the EEA Family permit applies to spouses of any EEA state, not just the UK.
To make matters worse, you can call them if you like and get the privilege of getting the runaround at approx €2 per min, apparently they just read out what it says on the website.

Anyone have any experience with this?