The only student villages that I know near the North Campus are Kerry Lee and Coiscéim, but there are plenty of student houses in the area. The entirety of the Listowel road (Oakpark) is lined with housing estates so there should be no problem finding a room.
An Seán Mhuileann (Across from the bus/train station) and King's Court (Manor) are a little further away but they are served by buses that shuttle to and fro. I don't know the schedule for them but they must be every hour, 9 til 6 at least. I would not like to be walking from either of these complexes to college on a cold, wet and windy Monday morning.
MODS: I've made a google map that contains locations of student villages etc. Maybe you can stick in a link to it in the first post. I don't think it can be embedded. I can update it if anyone has any suggestions. We can add to it as we go along.
I've made the locations on the map exactly where places are on streetview not where they are named on the map (slight difference in location usually but it will save people having to click around). This is because people might find streetview useful to check out the place. Just drag the little street view guy onto the icon for the place you want to see and voila!
Link:
http://g.co/maps/cmk2u