I'm pretty certain this is down to my not very good soldering, and although I can't see an issue, i'll reflow all the joints when I get a chance. My question is: Does the arduino LCD library still have initalization issues? I just want to make sure I haven't got two seperate issues (poor soldering AND dodgy LCD initialization)
The library works well almost all of the time. There appear to be some issues with some displays when run in the four-bit mode, probably due to those displays being out of spec. People having problems with those displays can usually get them to work with the LiquidCrystal440 library or it's updated version. To get a copy start here:--> Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting. and follow the Downloads link to get to the latest version.
In your case, since it worked on the breadboard, I would suspect your soldering. Why don't you post a photo and let us take a look.
I hope you didn't forget to connect LCD pin 5 to GND.
Don