Non-EU Spouse Visa(Ireland) complications (freedom of moveme

Hi,
I am married to a Dual UK/Ireland citizen. We applied under the freedom of movement act using his British citizenship to go to the Republic of Ireland. I am a Liberian national.
8 months ago (before we were married) I applied for a UK tourist visa while I lived in the United States. It was denied under the assumption that I did not show enough proof that I would leave the UK. I never bothered appealing and left America to come to Liberia.

I was married to my husband in Liberia.

We sent our application to the Irish embassy in Sierra leone(there is no embassy in Liberia) last Friday. They called us today and said that the application would have to be sent to ireland because of my UK refusal. They said this could take up to four weeks. Is this normal?
We are so disappointed because we really were looking forward to being in Ireland by the end of this month.
Can a refusal from the UK cause my application to be denied?
Thanks in advance