Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [56]
Dublin Tourism (www.visitdublin.com); Dublin Airport (arrivals hall; 8am-10pm); Dun Laoghaire (Dun Laoghaire ferry terminal; 10am-1pm & 2-6pm Mon-Sat); O’Connell St (Map; 14 Upper O’Connell St; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat); Wilton Tce (Map; Wilton Tce; 9.30am-noon & 12.30-5.15pm Mon-Fri)
Dublin Tourism Centre (Map; 605 7700; www.visitdublin.com; St Andrew’s Church, 2 Suffolk St; 9am-7pm Mon-Sat, 10.30am-3pm Sun Jul & Aug, 9am-5.30pm Mon-Sat Sep-Jun) Dublin’s main tourist office. There’s a booking fee of €4.50 for serviced accommodation or €7.50 for self-catering accommodation, and a 10% deposit that is refunded through your hotel bill.
Fáilte Ireland head office (Map; 1850 230 330; www.ireland.ie; Wilton Tce; 9am-5.15pm Mon-Fri)
Travel Agencies
American Express (Amex; Map; 605 7709; Dublin Tourism Centre, St Andrew’s Church, 2 Suffolk St; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat)
Thomas Cook (Map; 677 1721/1307; 118 Grafton St; 9am-5.30pm Mon, Tue, Fri & Sat, 10am-5.30pm Wed, 9am-7pm Thu)
USIT (Map; 602 1904; www.usit.ie; 19 Aston Quay; 9.30am-6.30pm Mon-Wed & Fri, 9.30am-8pm Thu, 9.30am-5pm Sat) Travel agency of the Union of Students in Ireland.
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DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
Dublin’s city centre is generally safe, even if petty crime of the bag-snatching, pickpocketing and car-break-in variety can be a low- to mid-level irritant. Be sensible: guard your belongings, don’t leave anything in your car and consider the use of supervised car parks for overnight parking. Remember also that insurance policies often don’t cover losses from cars.
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DUBLIN WITH A DIFFERENCE
Check out the antique incunabula – so old they’re not even called books – at Marsh’s Library, one of Dublin’s least-visited museums, or root around for rare original manuscripts and antique maps in cramped Cathach Books. Break out of the book mode with some comedy in the intimate International Bar at 9.30pm on Wednesday nights (admission €9). Take a thrillseeker’s safari in a speedboat around Dublin Bay and its islands from Malahide to Dalkey with Sea Safaris ( 806 1626; www.seasafari.ie; Malahide Marina; per hr €30), or don your best Edwardian garb and join in the fun on 16 June as the city celebrates Bloomsday.
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The only consistent trouble in Dublin is alcohol-related: where there are pubs and clubs there are worse-for-wear revellers looking to get home and/or get laid, and sometimes the frustrations of getting neither can result in a trip to the casualty department of the nearest hospital – hospitals are clogged to bursting with drink-related cases throughout the weekend.
The area north of Gardiner St, O’Connell St and Mountjoy Sq is not especially salubrious – gangs of disaffected youths and drug addicts on the make are a recipe for trouble and sometimes violence.
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SIGHTS
Grafton St & Around
Dublin’s most celebrated shopping street is the elegant, pedestrianised spine of the southern city centre: at its northern end is Trinity College, the country’s oldest and most beautiful university, which stretches its leafy self across a healthy chunk of south-city real estate. A few steps northwest is the area called Temple Bar, where bacchanalia and bohemia scrap it out for supremacy – when the sun sets, Bacchus is king. Grafton Street’s southern end runs into the main entrance to St Stephen’s Green, Dublin’s perennially popular green lung; surrounding and beyond it is the capital’s exquisite Georgian heritage, a collection of galleries, museums, and private and public buildings as handsome as any you’ll see in Europe.
TRINITY COLLEGE
On a summer’s evening, when the bustling crowds have gone for the day, there’s hardly a more delightful place in Dublin than the grounds of Ireland’s most prestigious university (Map; 896 1000, walking tours 896 1827; tour €5, incl Long Room €10; tours every 40min 10.15am-3.40pm Mon-Sat, 10.15am-3pm Sun mid-May–Sep), a masterpiece