Stuff to do in Dublin

[DaveShoelace]

Taking the little lady there next week for three nights.

Amazingly I have been eight times, yet never as a tourist, only for work/poker. So as such I have done very little outside of a card room.

Guiness factory obv is on the cards. What else is worth doing?

[kinboshi]

[Woodsey]

Sorry I've yet to do anything other than go on the piss when I've been.  

[Kev B]

Hi Barry. If you are interested in the Cities history then the 1916 Revolutionary tour is an absolute must. It is run out of the International pub opposite the Old Stand pub. The tour is taken by one of two guys, an English guy and a Dubliner named Lorcan. Both are good but Lorcan gives it with the old Irish humour.

Jameson's tour pretty good too.

The literary pub crawl is very good fun, run by actors. Plenty of fun skits followed by a different boozer.

A visit to the Fitz for poker is a must.

[sonour]

The open top bus tour of the city.

We do these whenever we visit a new city and I don't think we have ever been disappointed.

Hop on hop off

[AndrewT]

Kilmainham Gaol is an ex-prison that's now a museum - lots of important people in Ireland's history were imprisoned/executed there.

Temple Bar is the tourist trap area and it's pretty terrible in the evening, esp at the weekend but if you go during the day it's a lot quieter and you can at least see some vaguely arty stuff.

Pubs it's difficult to go wrong - south of Temple Bar around Dame Street/St Georges Street have plenty of decent pubs.

If you go north of the river and stray more than 5 feet from O'Connell Street then you can play the ever exciting game of 'avoiding the heroin addicts'.

[AndrewT]

Also there's a Viking Splash tour - tour of the city in a bus/boat where you wear Viking hats and shout 'AAAAAAARRRGGH' at unsuspecting passers-by.

[tikay]

http://www.nationaltransportmuseum.org/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairview_DART_depot

[DaveShoelace]

http://www.nationaltransportmuseum.org/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairview_DART_depot

I'm saving that one for my 'travel around the world looking at trains gap year'.

[Kev B]

http://www.1916rising.com/

[Tal]

Kev, I did that tour (or something very similar) a few years ago.

Undoubtedly interesting and eye-opening. The only problem I had was the feeling of awkwardness about being British.

"And this is where the Irish rebelled...200 were killed." Rinse. Repeat.

And, yes, I appreciate that's an inevitable hazard of taking a historical walking tour of anywhere that was once under British rule.

[Redsgirl]

I had a similar thread when I went with the girls a couple of years back, the open top bus tour people are recommending is a must, if you go on it on the first day you get to suss out what is where and what is worth a closer look, and the commentry from the driver is hilarious.

Kilmainham Gaol is defiantly worth seeing, although the stories from the very passionate tour guides are desperately sad and as Tal said make you want to apologise for every Englishman ever.

Didn't bother with the Guinness factory as I don't like Guinness but just generally wandering about was great fun, the people were friendly and theres live music everywhere, you can't fail to enjoy yourselves.
I can't wait to go back!

[Kev B]

Kev, I did that tour (or something very similar) a few years ago.

Undoubtedly interesting and eye-opening. The only problem I had was the feeling of awkwardness about being British.

"And this is where the Irish rebelled...200 were killed." Rinse. Repeat.

And, yes, I appreciate that's an inevitable hazard of taking a historical walking tour of anywhere that was once under British rule.

I never thought about it that way Tal. Maybe because I had an Irish mother and English Father. I have Irish uncles who were in the British army serving in Ireland during the troubles in the 70's. To me it's fascinating. I took my adult son's on the tour in 2009 and they enjoyed it, having known very little before.

The first time I did the tour was with Lorcan. The tour finished a little early so he took us around the corner from the post office to an area where different nationalities have market stalls and shops. Above a doorway is a plaque which Lorcan and others strived to have erected. The story is that one of the men (sorry can't remember his name) got injured in the gunfire whilst holed up in the post office. He crawled out through the side door, made his way to this street. He was found dead in the doorway. On his person they found a hand written note to his family. This note is replicated and engraved in his handwriting on the plaque. To think that thousands of people walk past it daily unaware.

[Rod]

+1 to Kilmainham Gaol and the open top bus ride

I actually quite like Temple Bar, but drinking anywhere in Dublin is automatically good basically, if you can find a pub with an Irish band playing so much the better.

[MintTrav]

If the weather's nice, take time for a stroll around the park in Stephen's Green. From there, take a walk down Grafton Street - top shopping and there are several famous pubs on the small streets off to both sides. Powerscourt Townhouse is an interesting shopping area halfway down on the left, where an outside square has been glazed over, with shops and cafes in the converted houses all around and in the middle. It's along a laneway, so you might need to ask where it is. At the bottom of the street, if you walk through the grounds in Trinity College, you forget that you are in the city. From there, you are close to Temple Bar.

At night, one place you could try is The Arlington Hotel on Bachelor's Walk for a cracking show of Irish music and dancing. If you are into bands like The Wolfe Tones/The Dubliners, you will find suchlike at Whelan's on Wexford Street, though don't go if you are sensitive to rebel songs. For a more lively time, the Cafe En Seine on Dawson Street is totally jumping.

I'd pass on the Guinness tour - it's not a patch on others like the Benedictine one.