Dublin Things to Do

Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature. There are only a few of them in the world (Dublin, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Reykjavik and Iowa City) so it’s significant and worth adding into your planning of a trip to Dublin. In fact, in Dublin it’s quite difficult to ignore its literary status and history. There are libraries, bookstores and museums in writers’ houses dotted all over the city, and many of the pubs claim to have been the haunts of the more famous Irish writers: James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde – although many of them spent years away from Dublin and spent more time at their typewriters than in the pub. Still, even writers need a drink at the end of the working day and in Dublin that means a visit to the pub.

Travel is increasingly facilitated by smart phone. Forget dragging an unwieldy travel guide around in your backpack, you can slip your phone into your pocket and have so much of what you need to know right there at hand. The Temple Bar Cultural Trust in Dublin has seen the way of the future and developed an app for a culture trail in Dublin.

Launched in 2011, it features 16 of Dublin’s top cultural venues including Trinity College, the Chester Beatty Library at Dublin Castle, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin City Hall, The Hugh Lane Gallery, Christ Church Cathedral and Project Arts Centre, some outdoor markets and other places in Temple Bar which is the heart of Dublin’s contemporary arts scene.

Some places just have that magic feeling about them – they seem filled with dreams and history, you can almost feel anything is possible, and you can hear the chattering voices discussing ideas and changing the world. Trinity College in Dublin is like that. In terms of universities, it’s legendary.