Tweaking Remote Control (In-Kernel LIRC)

I've recently rebuilt my MythTV box using Mythbuntu 12.04, to take advantage of newer hardware (Ivy Bridge).

On my previous build I used lirc to manage the remote, i.e. the mapping of key codes -> keypresses -> application keys; it was quite a journey to learn it all, and I ended up fairly comfortable with how it all worked.

What I have:

• I have a cheap Chinavasion remote and USB dongle, which I've found several articles on; these largely revolve around working with XBMC (interesting, but I don't think directly applicable) and also around getting a Harmony remote to work (it's a Chinavasion CVSB-983 - very useful, since I needed this to get my Harmony 900 working).
• Mythbuntu 12.04 64-bit
• MythTV 0.25 (likely irrelevant)

How it is right now
When I plug this in, it 'just works'. Which is great, except that Ubuntu uses it natively, and prevents some of the button presses from getting through to Myth. For example, I can send a button from the remote that equates to Ctrl-Alt-A (which I assume Ubuntu isn't interested in), and then trap that in Mythfrontend, but the remote's Play button is caught by Ubuntu (which displays a large circle with a line though it, as there's no media player loaded).
I understand that this is because lirc is merged into the kernel now, and I like that.

What I've done so far:

Found the device using lsusb:

$ lsusb  
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 073a:2230 Chaplet Systems, Inc. infrared dongle for remote

Found the event device number:

$ cat /proc/bus/input/devices  
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=073a Product=2230 Version=0110
N: Name="HID 073a:2230"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=sysrq kbd mouse1 event5 js0 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=10001f
B: KEY=4c37fff072ff32d bf54445600000000 ffffffffff 30c100b17c007 ffa67bfad951dfff febeffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe
B: REL=343
B: ABS=100030000
B: MSC=10

Tested the input with evtest (I pressed Play):

$ sudo evtest /dev/input/event5  
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x3 vendor 0x73a product 0x2230 version 0x110
Input device name: "HID 073a:2230"
Supported events:
  Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
  Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
    Event code 1 (KEY_ESC)
    Event code 2 (KEY_1)
    Event code 3 (KEY_2)
    Event code 4 (KEY_3)
    Event code 5 (KEY_4)
    Event code 6 (KEY_5)
    Event code 7 (KEY_6)
<------------snipped lots of 'Event code' lines------------>
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Event: time 1336435683.230656, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1336435683.246648, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value c00cd
Event: time 1336435683.246652, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE), value 0
Event: time 1336435683.246655, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

Tested showkey, again for the Play key:

$ sudo showkey -s
kb mode was RAW
[ if you are trying this under X, it might not work
since the X server is also reading /dev/console ]

press any key (program terminates 10s after last keypress)...
0xe0 0x22 0xe0 0xa2 

What I want:

• I'd like a way to scan the incoming button presses, if the above method isn't correct.
• I'd like to either remap each button press to something that Ubuntu/Unity will ignore, or even better pass the keypress directly to Myth (I suspect this later is only possible with lirc, but I could be wrong).
• I would really like to do this with the in-kernel drivers, i.e. without explicitly loading lirc; if that's the way the world is going, I'd rather find a way to map the current behaviour to what I want, rather than forcing the 'old' arrangement of loading lirc outside the kernel. Learning something new is also worthwhile!

My guess:
I'm assuming that this will require using setkeycodes, but have had trouble finding enough information to configure this.

Any help greatly appreciated!