The River Liffey under grey clouds, with the white arch of the Ha'penny Bridge and brick quayside buildings beyond

Dublin & the East, Ireland

Dublin

The River Liffey in central Dublin, with the Ha'penny Bridge in the distance. (P. Hughes / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0)

Ireland's capital and largest city, on the River Liffey where it meets Dublin Bay. A Viking base of the 840s became the seat of English and then British rule and, in the 18th century, one of the largest cities of the British Empire. Today it is a city of Georgian squares, writers, pubs and theatres, and the European base of many global technology firms.

Neighbourhoods

  • Temple Bar
    • First-time visitors
    • Nightlife

    The block of narrow cobbled streets on the south bank of the Liffey between Dame Street and the river, promoted as the city's cultural quarter. It is packed with pubs and restaurants, holds the Irish Film Institute, and has a food market on Saturdays; at night its bars and clubs are geared towards tourists.

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  • The Georgian Quarter
    • Historic district
    • Museums
    • Close to public transport

    The south-side streets around Trinity College, St Stephen's Green and Merrion Square, lined with brick Georgian terraces and doorways. Grafton Street, Leinster House, the National Gallery and the National Museum are all here, a short walk from each other.

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  • The Liberties
    • Historic district
    • Local life

    One of the city's oldest working-class neighbourhoods, in the south-west of the inner city, long tied to market traders, family businesses and the Guinness brewery at St James's Gate. Small shops and market stalls line Thomas Street and Meath Street, and both medieval cathedrals stand at its edge.

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  • Smithfield and Stoneybatter
    • Traditional music
    • Best for food

    North of the river and west of the centre, Smithfield's broad square holds the old Jameson distillery and the Cobblestone, a well-known traditional-music pub. Stoneybatter beside it is a small neighbourhood of terraced streets, cafés and bars, often called the city's hipster quarter.

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  • O'Connell Street and the north inner city
    • Shopping
    • Close to public transport

    The main thoroughfare of the inner city, with the General Post Office and the steel Spire, and Henry Street and the Moore Street market just off it. The Luas Green line and many bus routes stop here, and the Abbey Theatre is a block away.

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  • The Docklands
    • Modern architecture
    • Concerts

    The old port quays on both sides of the Liffey east of the centre, regenerated in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as an extension of the financial district. Glass offices of technology firms around Silicon Docks, the 3Arena, the Convention Centre and the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre line the river.

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  • Rathmines and Ranelagh
    • Quiet and residential
    • Local life

    Inner southern suburbs just over the Grand Canal. Rathmines was long known as 'Flatland' for its subdivided Victorian houses rented to students and young civil servants; neighbouring Ranelagh is a smaller, affluent urban village on the Luas Green line.

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Things to do

Famous landmarks

  • Trinity College Library and the Book of Kellslandmark

    Ireland's largest library, whose Old Library displays one volume of the Book of Kells at a time, along with the Brian Boru harp, a national symbol, and a copy of the 1916 Proclamation.

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  • Dublin Castlelandmark

    Founded on King John's orders in 1204 and mostly rebuilt as a Georgian palace, it was the seat of British administration until 1922, handed over to Michael Collins's Provisional Government after the Anglo-Irish Treaty; presidents are now inaugurated here.

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  • Christ Church Cathedrallandmark

    The elder of the city's two medieval cathedrals, founded under the Viking king Sitric Silkenbeard and rebuilt in stone under Strongbow in the late 12th century.

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  • St Patrick's Cathedrallandmark

    The national cathedral of the Church of Ireland, a short walk south of Christ Church.

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  • General Post Officelandmark

    The columned post office in the middle of O'Connell Street that served as headquarters of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916.

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  • Ha'penny Bridgelandmark

    A cast-iron footbridge over the Liffey beside Temple Bar, built in 1816 with ironwork cast in Shropshire.

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Museums and history

  • Kilmainham Gaolmuseum

    The former county prison, opened in the late 18th century, where leaders of the 1916 Rising were held and executed; it is now a museum.

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  • National Museum of Ireland – Archaeologymuseum

    The Kildare Street museum of Irish antiquities, with bog bodies, Bronze Age gold and a treasury of early medieval Irish metalwork.

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  • National Gallery of Irelandmuseum

    The national collection of Irish and European art on Merrion Square, founded in 1854, strong on Irish painting and Italian Baroque and Dutch masters.

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  • Chester Beattymuseum

    A museum and library in the grounds of Dublin Castle holding the mining magnate Alfred Chester Beatty's collection of manuscripts and artefacts from across the world; it was European Museum of the Year in 2002.

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  • EPIC The Irish Emigration Museummuseum

    A museum in the Docklands telling the story of the Irish diaspora and of emigration from Ireland.

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  • Marsh's Librarymuseum

    Ireland's first public library, opened in 1707 beside St Patrick's Cathedral, with more than 25,000 books and 300 manuscripts.

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  • Glasnevin Cemeteryattraction

    The national cemetery on the Northside, founded by Daniel O'Connell in 1832, with the graves of Parnell, de Valera, Markievicz and Collins, a visitor centre and guided tours.

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Parks and squares

  • Phoenix Parkpark

    An 11 km wall enclosing 707 hectares of grassland and avenues west of the centre, home to a herd of wild fallow deer since the 17th century and to the President's residence.

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  • St Stephen's Greenpark

    The Victorian garden square at the top of Grafton Street, reopened to the public in 1880 and surrounded by the offices of public bodies.

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  • Merrion Squarepark

    A Georgian garden square on the south side, beside Leinster House and the National Gallery.

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Pubs, stout and whiskey

  • Guinness Storehouseattraction

    Seven floors at St James's Gate Brewery around an atrium shaped like a pint glass, telling the story of the stout and ending at the Gravity Bar's views over the city.

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  • Jameson Distillery Bow St.attraction

    The old Jameson distillery off Smithfield Square, where the whiskey was made until 1971, now a visitor centre with guided tours.

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Music, sport and the stage

  • Abbey Theatreattraction

    The National Theatre of Ireland, opened in 1904 by writers of the Irish Literary Revival, which staged Yeats, Synge, Lady Gregory and O'Casey.

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  • Croke Parkattraction

    The headquarters of the GAA and the fourth-largest stadium in Europe, holding 82,300 for the All-Ireland finals in hurling and Gaelic football, with a GAA museum and stadium tours.

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Short trips from the city

  • Howth Headtrail

    A hilly peninsula north-east of the city, reached by DART, with a fishing harbour, beaches and cliff paths around the Hill of Howth.

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  • Dún Laoghaireattraction

    A coastal town on the southside, built around a large harbour begun after 1816 to serve Dublin, and a popular place for a seafront walk.

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Seasonal events

  • St. Patrick's Festivalaround 17 March

    A multi-day festival on and around the national holiday, established by the government in 1995, which includes the St Patrick's Day parade.

  • Bloomsday16 June

    The celebration of James Joyce on the day in 1904 on which Ulysses takes place, with readings, Edwardian dress and walks around the novel's Dublin.

  • Dublin Horse ShowAugust

    The Royal Dublin Society's show-jumping event at its showgrounds in Ballsbridge.

  • Dublin Fringe FestivalSeptember

    A sixteen-day festival of new theatre, dance, live art and music by emerging artists, which began in 1980.

  • Dublin Theatre Festivalautumn

    Europe's oldest specialised theatre festival, founded in 1957, with a season of Irish and international productions.

  • Dublin Marathonlast Sunday in October

    A road marathon through the city's streets, held every year since 1980.

Eat and drink

Long-standing places and food districts in Dublin. Hours, ratings and directions come from your maps app, always current.

Dublin classics

  • Leo Burdockrestaurant

    Dublin's oldest chipper, a century-old fish and chip shop on Werburgh Street near Christ Church Cathedral.

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  • Bewley's Grafton Streetcafe

    The café of the tea and coffee company founded in Dublin in 1840, on the city's principal southside shopping street.

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Food districts and markets

  • Moore Street marketmarket

    Dublin's oldest food market, an open-air row of fruit, vegetable and fish stalls just off Henry Street on the Northside.

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  • Temple Bar food marketmarket

    Saturday food stalls on Meeting House Square, in the middle of the cultural quarter.

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  • Camden Street and Wexford Streetneighborhood

    A south-side strip near St Stephen's Green known for its many pubs and nightclubs, with places to eat along Lower Camden Street.

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  • Thomas Street and Meath Streetneighborhood

    The market streets of the Liberties, with small food shops, stalls and traditional pubs close to the Guinness brewery.

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Experience Dublin

History

Dublin takes its name from Duibhlinn, the "black pool" where the River Poddle met the Liffey, beside an early Christian settlement. Vikings set up a fortified base there in about 841, and the Gaelic settlement of Áth Cliath, the "ford of hurdles", lay a little upstream — the source of the city's Irish name, Baile Átha Cliath. The Irish state chose 988 as the city's official founding year and marked a millennium in 1988. After the Norman invasion of 1169 Dublin became the centre of English power in Ireland: King John ordered the castle built in 1204, and the first Lord Mayor was appointed in 1229.

Plague in 1649–51 killed almost half of the city's 21,000 people, but the wool and linen trade with England brought rapid recovery, and by the 18th century Georgian Dublin, with more than 130,000 people, was for a short time the second-largest city of the British Empire. Wide streets, squares and terraces were laid out, and in 1759 Arthur Guinness founded the brewery that would become the city's largest employer. The Act of Union of 1800 took away the Irish parliament, and much of the city's wealth with it.

In 1916 the Easter Rising was fought in the city's streets, with the General Post Office as its headquarters, and its leaders were executed at Kilmainham Gaol. The city was at the forefront of the Celtic Tiger boom, suffered in the crash that followed and has since rebounded, with near full employment but a severe shortage of housing.

Culture & Customs

Literature is the city's best-known export. Swift, Wilde, Bram Stoker, Shaw, Yeats, Beckett and Joyce all have Dublin connections; Joyce set Dubliners and Ulysses in its streets, and Bloomsday each 16 June follows Leopold Bloom's day in 1904. Dublin became a UNESCO City of Literature in 2010. The Abbey Theatre, opened in 1904 by the writers of the Irish Literary Revival, is the national theatre, and the Dublin Theatre Festival, founded in 1957, is Europe's oldest specialised theatre festival.

Music runs from traditional sessions in pubs such as the Cobblestone in Smithfield to big concerts at the 3Arena in the Docklands and at Croke Park. Temple Bar hosted artists' studios in the 1980s and is still promoted as the cultural quarter, though it is now best known for its pubs. Sport is followed with passion: Croke Park, the GAA's headquarters, holds the All-Ireland finals, the Dublin Gaelic footballers won six titles in a row from 2015 to 2020, and the Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road is the home of Irish rugby and football.

The Liffey divides the city into the Northside and the Southside, and the Southside has historically been regarded as the wealthier and more privileged half, with notable exceptions. St Patrick's Festival in March is the biggest public celebration of the year.

Daily Life

At the 2022 census the city council area had about 593,000 people, the city and its suburbs about 1.26 million, and the Greater Dublin Area about 2.1 million. Around a quarter of the people in the city and suburbs were born outside Ireland, and the city is home to most of the country's Asian population.

The economy is built on services. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, TikTok, Pfizer and many other companies have European headquarters or major offices here, many of them in the Docklands and Silicon Docks, and financial services have grown in importance since the International Financial Services Centre was set up in 1987. Government, the universities — among them Trinity College and Technological University Dublin — tourism and the port add to it.

Housing is the dominant issue: supply falls well short of demand in the city and its surroundings, and the cost of living is high. Thousands protested against the cost of living in September 2022. The city has dozens of suburbs, among them Tallaght, Blanchardstown, Clontarf, Rathmines and Dún Laoghaire, linked to the centre by bus, Luas and DART. Evenings and weekends revolve around the pub, club GAA, the coast and the parks.

Food

Coddle is the city's own dish: layers of pork sausages and rashers — thin slices of back bacon — with potato, onion and herbs, braised slowly in the stock from the meat in a pot with a tight lid. It was reputedly a favourite of Jonathan Swift and Seán O'Casey, appears in the works of Joyce, and is traditionally eaten with bread. Dublin Bay prawns, the local name for the langoustine, come from the surrounding waters, and fish and chips from the city's chippers is a long tradition — Leo Burdock's near Christ Church is the oldest.

Moore Street off Henry Street has the city's oldest food market, with fruit, vegetable and fish stalls, and Temple Bar holds a food market on Saturdays. The Liberties keep their market streets around Thomas Street and Meath Street, and Camden Street on the south side is known for its pubs and nightclubs. Bewley's, founded in 1840, has given the city its tea and coffee for generations.

Drink is part of the city's identity. Guinness has been brewed at St James's Gate since 1759, and the Storehouse there ends with a pint above the rooftops. Jameson whiskey was distilled off Smithfield Square until 1971, and the Liberties have become a whiskey-distilling quarter again.

Planning tools

Budget

Dublin is the most expensive place in Ireland, and accommodation is the biggest cost: hotel prices rise steeply on big match, concert and festival weekends, and rooms are often scarce. Food can be kept affordable with chippers, markets and pub meals.

Daily Budget Midrange
USD 230–400 (central hotel, restaurant dinners, paid sights and tours, taxis now and then)
Daily Budget Shoestring
USD 90–150 (hostel bed, supermarket, market and pub food, Leap card buses and trams)

Book rooms well ahead for summer and for weekends with big games or concerts at Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium.

Best Time to Visit

May to September brings the mildest weather and very long evenings, with Bloomsday in June and the Fringe and Theatre festivals in September and autumn. The city is at its fullest around St Patrick's Day in March and on big sporting weekends. Winter is cool, damp and dark early, but quieter, and the museums and pubs make it a reasonable city break all year.

Suggested Number of Days

Three or four days cover the centre at a steady pace. Allow five to seven to add the coast north and south of the city by DART and day trips into the surrounding counties. Big-event weekends mean more time queuing and less choice of rooms.

First Visit
3–4 days
With Surroundings
5–7 days

Transportation

Two Luas tram lines cross the city: the Red line runs east–west from the Docklands past Connolly and Heuston stations to Tallaght and Saggart, and the Green line runs from the north inner city through the centre to southern suburbs such as Sandyford. The DART electric railway follows the coast from Malahide and Howth to Bray and Greystones, and Dublin Bus covers the rest. The Dublinbikes rental scheme has run since 2009, and the city centre has a 30 km/h speed limit.

A Leap card works across buses, the Luas and the DART; driving in the city centre is slow and parking expensive.

Airport & Station Connections

Dublin Airport, the busiest on the island, is about 7 km north of the city centre near Swords. There is no rail link: taxis and buses run into the centre. Intercity trains arrive at Heuston, for the south and west, and at Connolly, and ferries from Britain dock at Dublin Port east of the Docklands.

Walkability

The historic centre inside the two canals is compact and walkable: Trinity College, Grafton Street, St Stephen's Green, Temple Bar, Dublin Castle and O'Connell Street lie within a short walk of each other, and the quays make an easy route along the river. Phoenix Park, Kilmainham and the outer suburbs are better reached by tram or bus. Rain is the main obstacle.

Safety

Ireland is a very safe country, with low levels of violent crime. In Dublin the main problems are pickpocketing and bag-snatching around busy streets and transport hubs, and some antisocial behaviour in parts of the north inner city, including around O'Connell Street, after dark.

Watch bags in crowds and on public transport, take normal care late at night north of the river, and leave nothing on view in parked cars. Check current official travel advice before travelling.

Climate

A mild maritime climate. Its sheltered position on the east coast makes Dublin the driest place in Ireland, with about half the rainfall of the west coast, but showers can come at any time of year and the weather changes quickly.

Summer
mild — July is the warmest month, with average highs of about 20°C; the official record is 33.1°C, set in Phoenix Park in July 2022
Winter
cool and damp — February is the coldest month, with average lows of about 4°C; frost and snow are occasional

Local Customs

The pub is the centre of social life, valued as much for conversation — the craic — as for drink, and traditional music sessions are held in many pubs. Road signs are in Irish and English. Gaelic games are followed fiercely.

A percentage tip is not usually expected, though 10–15% is standard in restaurants; leaving a few coins is considered polite, tipping is not expected in pubs, and a tip should reflect satisfaction with the service. Dress is casual almost everywhere.

Common Payment Methods

The currency is the euro. Cards are accepted in most outlets, and public transport uses the Leap card. ATMs are easy to find; a little cash is useful for market stalls and small shops.