I've been doing some more research into this issue.
Apparently, this same problem is very common with "processing", as well as wiring.
According to various message boards, The issue seems to be that ubuntu 11.04 defaults to 32-bit java on a 64-bit system, and this leads to problems.
To test out this idea, I installed processing, and low and behold, I had the exact same issue with it failing to launch in Ubuntu 11.10
So I opened up the terminal and navigated over to my processing directory, and typed this:
rm -Rf java
ln -sfn /opt/jdk1.6.0_29 java
And processing now works perfectly!
So I navigated over to my Wiring directory and typed in the same thing into the terminal.
Now whenever I click on the "Wiring" script, I get a message asking me where it wants to save my sketches to, (Just like the first time using processing). After selecting a location, nothing happens. Wiring still wont load.
I do think I'm moving in a direction on this, (not sure if it's the right one or not...), but I will figure this out, even if I have to read a manual!