If you’ve only got a couple of days in Dublin, the Traditional Music Pub Crawl which starts in the St. John Gogarty’s Pub in the Temple Bar is a winner, as is the Whiskey Tour at the Old Jameson Distillery near The Four Courts on the North Side of the Liffey.
If you like whiskey follow this tip: The tour starts in an auditorium and the guide will say a few words and then ask for four volunteers. As soon as the guide finishes saying “Volunteer” jump out of your seat and furiously wave your hands.
You will then be one of the four people selected for the Whiskey tasting at the end of the tour. Not only will you get your dram of Jameson like all the other tourists, but you’ll also get a set of 8 or 10 wee cups of different whiskeys, Glenlivet, Jim Beam, Paddy Power, and Johnny Walker Red to name but a few.
A really good stop for those interested in the roots of Irish Dancing and Music is “Ceol” which is an interactive museum just opened at Smithfield Market.
Smithfield Market is a well known spot just West of the Old Jameson Distillery. The West side of the plaza still houses wholesale vegetable and fruit markets (the potato warehouse is chock full of spuds). On the Northside is a pub that is acquiring a name for good trad sessions amongst the locals (the name escapes me now). The East side of the plaza is a modern looking building, half devoted to new (and pricey) apartments, and the other half houses “Ceol”, Chief O’Neills bar, and a traditional music shop.
The “Ceol” exhibit features interactive video presentation booths of the different periods in Irish Musical History, individual listening booths where you can hear excerpts of some of the best players of all instruments in Irish music, from the bones to the Uileann (pronounced “Illin”) pipes.
The second floor has a very good display of tap dancing that runs on video monitors suspended from the ceiling just above your head. The footage is taken from a under a plexiglass stage so it appears as the dancer is dancing on top of you and you can see the foot movements very well.
Behind that is a small dance floor with mirrors on two sides and two projection screens. You select a dance and the dancers appear on the screens and you can follow along (great fun for a couple or a group of 4.
The last stop should be the auditorium which features a very informative 18-minute presentation on Irish Musical Heritage. Cost is about 6 Punt.
Doable day trips from Dublin include Newgrange neolithic grave site to the North (near Drogheda) and Glendalough (prounounced “Glendalock”) to the South.
Glendalough has the better scenery (two lakes in a valley carved by glaciers) as well as some good hiking. If you are interested in hiking, the Wicklow Way meanders for 120km along the Wicklow mountains from Marley Park to Aghavannah. There are numerous day hikes that one can do along the way, and the Tourist Offices sell maps and guidebooks.
If you have a car, a visit to Johnnie Fox’s in Glencullen is a good spot for a pint. It claims to be the highest pub in Ireland and was established in 1798 and served as a meeting place for Irish revolutionaries throughout the centuries.
Evenings sometimes feature a “hooley”, but the place can get packed with tourists. To see it with just the locals around, get there before 2 or 3 PM, they have excellent seafood and on sunny days the view from the outdoor patio is great.
The oldest pub in Dublin is the Brazen Head at 20 Lower Bridge Street, although the actual date is a subject for debate.
If you like a bit of physical fitness with your beer, try giving the local chapter of the Hash House Harriers a call. The HHH is commonly referred to as “A Drinking Club with a Running Problem” and exists in over 184 countries with over 100,000 members.
General Info on Dublin
If you’re in Dublin and want the latest on what’s going on, when and where, there are two good sources.
First is the Event Guide, which is a weekly newspaper that lists anything and everything going on in Dublin.
The website has cinema and theatre listings but you really need the paper version which is available at record shops and at most of the internet cafes.
The second source for news of what’s on is in the Weekend section of the Irish Times which usually comes out on Saturday.
Speaking of Cyber Cafes, there are a few but there are three that I’ve been to:
Planet Cyber Cafe, about two blocks up on from Dame Street at 23 South St. George’s street (its in the downstairs portion of a video rental shop, but there’s a big sign out front. As of 30 March, they charge �4.50 per hour and have about 15 machines.
There’s another cafe right on O’Connell street not too far from the Liffey on your right hand side (with the Liffey at your back).
Cyberia in Temple Bar has about 15 PC’s and offers student/youth discounts.
