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Pearse Museum
This handsome Palladian mansion was home to St Enda's, an experimental Gaelic school established by nationalist poet and 1916 martyr Pádraig Pearse. The fascinating exhibition focusing on Pearse's life and works spent all of 2007 under the refurbisher's tarpaulin but should reopen in mid-2008. The beautiful grounds, gardens and grottos surrounding the house are still open, but you'd want to be a big greenery fan to make the trek out here while the house is still closed.
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Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Gallagher Gallery
This large, well-lit gallery at the end of a serene Georgian street has a grand name to fit its exalted reputation as one of the most prestigious exhibition spaces for modern and contemporary art in Ireland.
Read more about Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Gallagher Gallery
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Royal Hospital Kilmainham & Irish Museum Of Modern Art (IMMA)
IMMA is the country's foremost gallery for contemporary Irish art, although it takes second billing to the majestic building in which it is housed. The Royal Hospital Kilmainham was built between 1680 and 1684 as a retirement home for veteran soldiers, a function it fulfilled until 1928, after which it was left to languish for half a century before being saved in a 1980s restoration.
Read more about Royal Hospital Kilmainham & Irish Museum Of Modern Art (IMMA)
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Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland
The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland hosts regular exhibitions.
Read more about Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland
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Royal Irish Academy
Next door to Mansion House is the seat of Ireland's pre-eminent society of letters, whose 18th-century library houses many important documents, including an extensive collection of ancient manuscripts such as the Book of Dun Cow , the oldest surviving Irish manuscript; the Cathach of St Columba ; and the entire collection of 19th-century poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852).
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Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
This huge gallery showcases the works of dozens of up-and-coming Irish artists at a time, and is the best place to see cutting-edge Irish art across a range of media. Artist's studios are also part of the complex, but these are off-limits to casual visitors.
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Trinity College
Don your gown and dust off that tome on elocution, for this calm and cordial retreat from the bustle of contemporary Dublin is not just Ireland's most prestigious university (and the home of the blockbuster hit that is the Book of Kells ) but a throwback to those far-off days when a university education was the preserve of a very small elite who spoke passionately of the importance of philosophy and the need for empire.
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Waterways Visitor Centre
If you absolutely must know about the construction and operation of Ireland's canals, then you'll dig a visit to this interpretive centre upstream from the Grand Canal Docks, which explores the history and personality of Ireland's canals and waterways through models (if they're working), audiovisual displays and panels. Otherwise, admiring the 'box on the docks' - as this modern building is nicknamed - is plenty good enough for the average enthusiast of artificial waterways.
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