Don't give up, Irelia is actually a great laner and can even solo well, you just need to focus on your main objective, which is not dying to the enemy so you can farm the lane and hopefully level up quicker to be a great asset to the team later on.
As runes, i'd say anything tanky would do for her with some mana regen thrown in.
Start item would definitely be a Regen necklace, along with your natural health gain and HP life steal, you're near impossible to push and be harassed.
The main thing is about getting in and out of minions faces with your Q, manage your last hits well with it and you'll be fine, Never, ever overextend and always keep the minions at bay so you don't risk yourself in losing exp.