Some Dublin Highlights

Dublin is caught between an old generally conservative order and a forward-looking young generation made up of locals, people from rural Ireland and others from all over Europe. While this creates some local problems it has appeal to visitors looking for a dynamic city experience.

Dubliners are generally proud of their city and they are happy to give directions and offer other advice on where to go and what to do. The city has a range of attractions and most are within easy reach of each other.

Dublin is divided into north and south with the River Liffey acting as a physical and sometimes social dividing line. Traditionally, the southside has been regarded as the wealthier end of town and it also posses most of the city’s historic sites. All the highlights discussed in this journal are on the southside of the river.

St. Stephen’s Green is at the southern end of the inner city. The nine-hectare park is a sanctuary from the bustle of the city streets with tree-lined walks, lawn areas, colourful flowerbeds and an ornamental lake. Grafton Street, Dublin’s principal shopping street is nearby.

Dublin Castle is the heart of historic Dublin. Dublin gets its name from the Black Pool that was on the site of the present castle garden. The Chester Beatty Library and Gallery is part of this complex with its artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world.

Christ Church Cathedral founded in 1030 is Dublin’s oldest building. Treasures of the church include a unique range of manuscripts, historic artifacts and spectacular examples of gold and silverware.

Trinity College is the oldest university in Ireland and it manages to keep its ancient seclusion of cobbled squares, gardens and parks. Nearby is Mansion House, Leinster House, the National Gallery and the national Museum.

Quick Tips:

Visit the National Museum – Archaeology on Kildare Street to be magically transported back 9000 years. The treasury features Celtic and Medieval art and you can also experience life at the time of the Vikings.

When at Christ Church Cathedral, go across the road to Dublinia and the Viking World. The exhibitions reveal glimpses of the Viking and Medieval past using reconstructions, audio-visual, artifacts and interactive displays.

Dublin has a Rock n’ Stroll visitor trail which guides you around the significant sites in the development of the musical career of U2, The Corrs, Westlife, Sinead O’Connor, Bob Geldof and more. U2, incidentally, started out busking on Grafton Street.

Most businesses open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5.30pm, while most shops open 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and noon until 6pm on Sundays. Shops stay open late on Thursday night in the city center and on Friday in the suburbs.

Dublin was Europe’s first smoke-free capital when, in 2004, it banned smoking in all enclosed places of work. This includes office blocks, public buildings, pubs, nightclubs, restaurants and cafes.

220/240 volts is the standard electrical current and plugs are the British-type 3-pin flat. Adapters are therefore required by most visitors and those from North America will also require a transformer.

Best Way To Get Around:

All the places covered in this journal are within walking distance of each other. If your hotel is in central Dublin you will be able to get to each of them on foot.

There is an extensive network of bus routes throughout the city with most passing through the central area. Fares are based on distance. The current fare for short distances is 1.05 Euros. You can also buy a Rambler ticket which allows you unlimited travel on Dublin bus services for a fixed period. One-day tickets are 6 Euros, 3-day tickets 11.50 Euros, and 5-day tickets 18.50 Euros.

Dublin taxis have no distinctive colour but are easily identified by their official roof signs. You can hail taxis in the street and there are three major ranks in the inner city at St.Stephen’s Green, College Green and O’Connell Street.

There is a wide choice of Irish and international car rental companies represented in Dublin but I would advise against using one if you are just interested in the central city. We didn’t pick-up a car until we were leaving to explore the rest of Ireland.

Even though Dublin is not one of those ‘over the top’ frantic cities, it is always nice to get away for awhile from the noise, traffic and haste of a downtown area. St Stephen’s Green fulfills this role perfectly. The Green is an inner-city public park within the city centre, adjoining the Grafton Street shopping area.

The park is quite large, rectangular in shape, and surrounded by streets that once formed major traffic arteries through Dublin city centre, although traffic management changes implemented a few years ago have greatly reduced the volume of traffic.

While the central park of St. Stephen's Green is one of three ancient commons in the city, its current layout owes much to the restorations of the 1800s. Today there is a good combination of open area, formal gardens, a lake and statues. We visited around mid-day and the park was being enjoyed by thousands of workers and shoppers seeking a break.

One of the more unusual aspects of the park lies on the north west corner of the central area - a garden for the blind with scented plants, which can withstand handling, and are labelled in Braille. Further north again is a large lake. Home to ducks and other water fowl, the lake is fed by an artificial water fall, spanned by O'Connell bridge, and fronted by an ornamental gazebo. It is a delightful area on a sunny day. The lakes in the park are fed from the Grand Canal at Portbello.

One of the prettiest parts of the park when we visited was the formal garden near the lake. The Spring flowers were in full bloom and the colour was magnificent. To the south side of the main garden circle is open heath surrounding a bandstand, and this area was crowded with lunching students, workers and shoppers.

As you wander around there are several things to look out for. The Fusilier’s Arch at the Grafton Street corner which commemorates the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who lost their lives in the Second Boer War was controversial but is attractive. Don’t miss the statue representing the Three Fates inside the Lesson Street gate (a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help to refugees after World War 11).

Other highlights are the Yeats memorial garden with a sculpture by Henry Moore, a seated statue of Lord Ardilaun on the western side, the man who gave the Green to the city, facing the Royal College of Surgeons which he also sponsored, and a bust of James Joyce facing his former university at Newman House.

Two other features are a memorial to the Great Famine of 1845-1850 by Edward Delaney, and a statue of Robert Emmet standing opposite his birthplace. Even if memorials are not your thing, an hour or so in this Green will help revive the body and spirit. Don’t miss it.

Dublin Castle should be on every visitors list when in Dublin. It has centuries of history, is home to the much-praised Chester Beatty Library, and is the venue for a fascinating tour through the old palace and down into the original Viking city of 1000 years ago.

Dublin Castle off Dame Street, is now a major Irish governmental complex, but it was formerly the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922. Most of the complex dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland. The Castle served as the seat of English, then later British government of Ireland under the Lordship of Ireland (1171–1541), the Kingdom of Ireland (1541–1800), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800–1922). Upon establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the complex was ceremonially handed over to the newly formed Provisional Government led by Michael Collins.

Dublin Castle fulfilled a number of roles through its history. Originally built as a defensive fortification for the Norman city of Dublin, it later evolved into a royal residence, resided in by the representative of the monarch. Over the years parliament and law courts met at the castle before moving to new purpose-built venues. It also served as a military garrison.

Upon formation of the Free State in 1922, the castle immediately assumed the role of court complex, as the Four Courts on the Liffey quays had been badly damaged during the Civil War - a role it served for the first decade of the newly independent state. It was also decided in the 1930s that the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde in 1938 would take place in the castle, and ever since the complex has been host to this ceremony.

The State Apartments can be visited by joining an organised tour. These depart evry half hour or so and cost a few Euros.The apartments contain the rooms formerly used by the Lord Lieutenant for personal accommodation and public entertaining during the Castle Season. Today these richly decorated rooms are used by the Irish Government for official engagements including policy launches, hosting of State Visit ceremonial, and the inauguration of the President every seven years.

Saint Patrick's Hall is the grandest room of the State Apartments, and contains one of the most important decorative interiors in Ireland. Formerly the ballroom of the Lord Lieutenant's administration, today the room is used for presidential inaugurations. It is one of the oldest rooms in the castle, dating from the 1740s, though its decoration largely dates from around 1790.

The Throne Room was originally built as the Battleaxe Hall in the 1740s, it was converted for use as a Presence Chamber around 1790. The regal decoration dates from this time and from subsequent alterations in the 1830s. It contains a throne built for the visit of King George IV to Ireland in 1821.

The tour also includes a view of the 13th-century record tower, the largest visible fragment of the original Norman castle. It then goes into the Undercroft, the excavated site on the grounds where an early Viking fortress stood, and the treasury, built between 1712 and 1715, believed to be the oldest surviving purpose-built office building in Ireland.

The castle complex also hosts the Chester Beatty Library and Gallery, in a purpose-constructed facility. This is rated as one of the finest collections of Oriental art in the world. It was assembled by Alfred Beatty, an American, who settled in Dublin in 1950. In 1957 he became Ireland’s first honorary citizen and on his death in 1968 he was accorded a State fuberal – the only private citizen ever to have received this honour.

Christ Church Cathedral is the elder of the city's two mediaeval cathedrals, the other being St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It is officially claimed as the seat of both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin. In practice it has been the cathedral of the Archbishop of Dublin, since the creation of the Church of Ireland at the Reformation. Though nominally claimed as his cathedral, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin uses St Mary’s in Malborough Street, as his pro-cathedral.

Christ Church Cathedral is located in the former heart of mediaeval Dublin, next to Wood Quay, at the end of Dame Street. However, little evidence of that remains.
The cathedral was begun in 1038 by King Sitric Silkenbeard, the Danish Viking King of Dublin, for the first Bishop of Dublin. Henry II attended the Christmas service at the cathedral in 1171, and in the years thereafter, Strongbow and other Anglo-Norman magnates helped to fund a complete rebuilding of Christ Church, comprising the construction of a choir, choir aisles and transepts, the crypt, and three chapels. A further chapel was added in the 1200s and much of the extant nave was built in the 1230s.

In 1300 Archbishop Ferings of Dublin arranged an agreement between the two cathedrals, the Pacis Compostio, which acknowledged both as cathedrals and made some provision to accommodate their shared status.

The cathedral was the location of the coronation of Lambert Simnel in 1487 as 'King Edward VI' a boy pretender who sought unsuccessfully to depose Henry VII of England. In 1493, the Choir School was founded.

Christ Church also contains the largest cathedral crypt in Britain or Ireland, constructed in 1172-1173. Having been renovated in the early 2000s, it is now open to visitors and it contains various monuments and historical features.

One is the oldest known secular carvings in Ireland, two carved statues that until the late eighteenth century stood outside the Tholsel (Dublin's mediæval city hall, which was demolished in 1806). There is also a tabernacle and set of candlesticks which were used when the cathedral last operated (for a very short time) under the Roman rite, when the Catholic King James II, having fled England in 1690, came to Ireland to fight for his throne and attended High Mass in the temporarily re-catholicised Christ Church

Another item worth seeing is the stocks, formerly in Christ Church Place, made in 1670 and used for the punishment of offenders before the Court of the Dean's Liberty (the small area under the Cathedral's exclusive civic authority), moved here in 1870. There are also some historic books and altar goods of the Cathedral

Dublin has many impressive buildings from past centuries and collectively and individually these have considerable visitor appeal. Many come from the period when Dublin was thriving under British rule and some are truly impressive.

Trinity College is Dublin’s most famous university. It was founded in 1592 and played a major role in the development of the Anglo-Irish tradition. While the relatively modest portico on College Green is interesting it is the harmoniously arranged eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings arranged around cobbled courtyards that make it so grand.

The highlight here, of course, is the famous Old Library which contains a collection of priceless Irish manuscripts including the celebrated Book of Kells. It is believed this book originated around 800AD in a monastery in Scotland and was brought to Dublin in the seventeenth century. The book was rebound in the 1950s into four separate volumes and two of these are on show in the library. After viewing the manuscripts, you climb the stairs to the Long Room with its barrel-vaulted ceiling. Don’t miss any of this.

Across the street from Trinity College is the Bank of Ireland building. This was started in 1729 and was envisaged as the new parliament building for a new state of Ireland. This status was achieved in 1782 but was short-lived as the passing of the Act of Union in 1801 stripped Ireland of its independence and its parliament. Two years later, the building was sold to the Bank of Ireland. It is still a bank but visitors are admitted during normal banking hours and tours are conducted on Tuesdays. Don’t miss seeing the atmospheric former House of Lords.

Mansion House is something else not to be missed. It is the residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin and has been since 1715. The building was constructed by a wealthy merchant in 1710. It was here that the first parliament of the Irish people, assembled in 1919 to adopt Ireland's Declaration of Independence and ratify the proclamation of the Irish Republic by the insurgents of 1916. The building, on Dawson Street, is not open to the public but the exterior can be enjoyed by all.

Leinster House was built in 1745 for the Duke of Leinster on a greenfield site on what is now Kildare Street. The façade to this side is built to look like a town house while the other side which looks out on what is now Merrion Square, resembles a country residence.

The building was converted into the Irish Parliament in 1922 after the establishment of the Irish Free State. Free tours are arranged depending on demand so it would be wise to call the PR office (01-6183000) to see what is happening while you are in Dublin.

The National Gallery is on the west side of Merrion Square. The gallery’s old wing is divided into three wings and there is a new Millennium Wing with a lofty, skylit atrium. This is part of a huge government complex that includes the national library, Natural History Museum, government buildings and the National Museum. While individually none of these buildings is particularly impressive, collectively they are attractive.

Guidebooks and other information sources keep saying that Dublin is a small city so it is easy to navigate on foot. To some extent this is correct but also bear in mind that Dublin can be very cold and wet and getting around under these circumstances is not pleasant if you are walking. As well as that there are several attractions that are much further from town than is comfortable to walk. These include the Guinness Storehouse, Collins Barracks (part of the National Museum), the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham Gaol and Phoenix Park.

If you want to get a quick feel for the city’s landmarks, I suggest you invest in a Dublin Bus City Tour ticket. These are 15 Euros for an adult and 13 Euros for a student or senior. The tour operates as a hop-on-hop-off service with stops near all the main sights. There is a commentary and your ticket entitles you to a discount to some attractions. The complete tour lasts about one and a half hours but your 24-hour ticket allows you to explore at your own pace. Buses run every 10 or 15 minutes from 9.30 am until 5pm then every 30 minutes until 6.30pm.

An extension of this is the 25 Euro Dublin Freedom ticket which allows you to use the City Tour bus, other Dublin Bus services throughout the city, and the Airlink Express service for three consecutive days. Tickets are available from the Dublin Tourism office at the airport or central Dublin, from Dublin Bus in Upper O’Connell Street or from some hotels.

During the summer months there are several organized walking tours of the central city. One is a day-time historical tour conducted by graduates from Trinity College but there are also evening Literary Pub Crawls and Musical Pub Crawls for those so inclined. Tickets for these are generally available from Dublin Tourism.

Dublin Bus operates the city’s bus routes. There is an extensive network throughout the city. This is the most effective way of getting to many parts of Dublin but it can be difficult to establish which bus goes where. Details of routes, timetables and special value tickets are available from any Dublin Tourism Office. One thing to particularly note is that the service operates an exact fare policy so no change is given. It pays to have a selection of coins ready when you board the bus as fares are dependent on age and destination.

The other two modes of public transport worth exploring are the DART, a suburban train system that links Howth to the north of the city with Bray to the south, and the tram called Luas. The DART is useful if you wish to visit any part of Dublin close to the Bay. The Luas is a modern light rail transit system that runs on two tramlines which travel through the city. Unfortunately they do not intersect anywhere so that restricts there usefulness for the visitor. The Green Line starts at St. Stephen’s Green and heads south while the Red Line travels from Tallaght in the southwest to Connolly train station in the north.