-
National Photographic Archives
What should be a wonderful resource putting a face on all facets of Irish history is actually a sadly disappointing archive of photographs taken from the 19th century onwards. Its visitor-friendly catalogue is computer accessible and the eager staff are always willing to help with queries, but the available material is not nearly as extensive as we'd hoped.
-
National Print Museum
You don't have to be into printing to enjoy this quirky little museum, where personalised guided tours are offered in a delightfully casual and compelling way. First watch a video relating to printing and its place in Irish history, then take a wander amid the smell of ink and metal, and through the various antique presses that are still worked for small jobs by a couple of retired printers doing it for the love of the craft.
-
Natural History Museum
Dusty, weird and utterly compelling, this window into Victorian times has barely changed since Scottish explorer Dr David Livingstone opened it in 1857. The creaking interior gives way to an overwhelming display of stuffed animals and mounted heads, crammed in like something from a Hitchcock movie. Of the two million species on display in the museum, many are long extinct.
-
Newman House
Cardinal Newman established the Catholic University of Ireland here in 1865. To see one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture currently open to the public, you'll need to take one of the guided tours, Tuesday to Friday from June to August (the house isn't open to general admission).
-
Newman University Church
Next to Newman House, this neo-Byzantine charmer was built in the mid-18th century (Cardinal Newman didn't care too much for the Gothic style of the day). Its richly decorated interior was mocked at first but has since become the preferred surroundings for Dublin's most fashionable weddings.
-
Number Twenty-Nine
In an effort to at least partly atone for its sins against Dublin's Georgian heritage - it broke up Europe's most perfect Georgian row to build its headquarters - the ESB preserved and restored this home to give an impression of genteel family life in the city at the beginning of the 18th century. From the rat-traps in the kitchen basement to the handmade wallpaper and Georgian cabinets, the attention to detail is impressive, but the regular tours (dependent on numbers) are disappointingly dry.
-
Old Jameson Distillery
Smithfield's biggest draw is devoted to uisce beatha ( ish- kuh ba-ha, 'the water of life'). The whowhatnow? It's whiskey, the essential Irish spirit, which doesn't quite bestow life, but, if drunk enough, will undoubtedly take it away. Here, in the original home of one of its most famous and renowned distillers, you can get an excellent introduction to the history and culture of this most potent of drinks.
-
Old Library
If you are following the less studious-looking throng at Trinity College, you'll find yourself magnetically drawn south of Library Sq to the Old Library, home to Trinity's prize possession and biggest crowd-puller, the astonishingly beautiful Book of Kells.
-
Original Print Gallery
This gallery specialises in original, limited-edition prints, including etchings, lithographs and silk-screens, mostly by Irish artists.
-
Oscar Wilde House
In 1855 the surgeon William Wilde and his wife 'Speranza' Wilde moved into 1 North Merrion Sq - the first residence built on the square (1762) - with their one-year-old son Oscar. They lived here until 1878 and we imagine that the young Oscar's genius was stimulated by the famous literary salon hosted here by his mother. The family lived in the house right through Oscar's education at nearby Trinity.
-
Advertisement
-
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.
-
Phoenix Park Visitor Centre
In the north of the park, near the Ashtown Gate, this visitor centre occupies what were the stables of the papal nunciature, and explores the wildlife and history of the park through film and two floors of exhibits. Visitors are also taken on a tour of the adjacent four-storey Ashtown Castle, a 17th-century tower-house that was concealed inside the later building of the papal nunciature and was only 'discovered' when the latter was demolished in 1986.
-
Rathfarnham Castle
Less castle and more fortified house, this was originally built by Adam Loftus, the archbishop of Dublin, around 1583 and is most interesting as a restoration in progress. Several of the rooms - including 18th-century interiors by William Chambers - have been returned to their original splendour, while others are clearly struggling under the ravages of time. The guides have an infectious enthusiasm for the project. It's 6km south of the city centre.
-
Regent House Entrance
The elegant Regent House entrance on College Green was built between 1752 and 1759, and is guarded by statues of the writer Oliver Goldsmith (1730-74) and the orator Edmund Burke (1729-97). The railings outside the entrance are a popular meeting spot.
-
Rotunda Hospital
Irish public hospitals aren't usually attractions, by any stretch of the imagination, but this one makes for an interesting walk-by or an unofficial wander inside if you're interested in Victorian plasterwork. It was the first maternity hospital in the British Isles - and once the world's largest - and was established by Dr Bartholomew Mosse in 1748, at a time when the burgeoning urban population was enduring shocking infant mortality rates.
-
Royal Dublin Society Showground
Founded in 1731, the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) was involved in the establishment of the National Museum, Library, Gallery and Botanic Gardens. The showground is used for various exhibitions throughout the year, but the main event is the Dublin Horse Show, which reflects the society's agricultural background. It takes place in the first week of August and includes a prestigious international showjumping contest among other events.
-
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
-
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)
-
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
-
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).
-
Advertisement
-
Shaw Birthplace
Close to the Grand Canal, the birthplace of playwright George Bernard Shaw is now a restored Victorian home that is interesting even to non-literary buffs because it provides an insight into the domestic life of the 19th-century's middle classes. Shaw's mother held musical evenings in the drawing room, and it is likely that her son's store of fabulous characters was inspired by those who attended.
-
Spire
Soaring 120m over O'Connell St - and the rest of the city - this gigantic needle is impossible to miss, a risqué homage to the fight against one of Dublin's greatest social ills, heroin addiction. Yeah, right. Dubs excel at gallows humour, but the Spire is neither a joke nor a commemoration of anything in particular, except maybe the notion that for a spell in the 1990s the sky was the limit.
-
St Audoen's Churches
It was only right that the newly arrived Normans would name a church after their patron saint Audoen (the 7th-century bishop of Rouen, aka Ouen), but they didn't quite figure on two virtually adjacent churches bearing his name, just west of Christ Church Cathedral. The more interesting of the two is the Church of Ireland, the only medieval parish church in the city that's still in use. It was built between 1181 and 1212, although a 9th-century burial slab in the porch suggests that it was built on top of an even older church. Its tower and door date from the 12th century and the aisle from the 15th century, but the church today is mainly a product of a 19th-century restoration.
-
St George's Church
If you're on the north side, the steeple of this deconsecrated church may catch your eye. The church was built by Francis Johnston from 1802 in Greek Ionic style, and the 60m-high steeple was modelled on that of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Although this was one of Johnston's finest works, and the Duke of Wellington was married here, the church has been sorely neglected - probably because it's Church of Ireland and not Roman Catholic, it has to be said. The bells that Leopold Bloom heard in that book were removed, the ornate pulpit was carved up and used to decorate the pub Thomas Read's, and the spire is in danger of crumbling, which has resulted in it being sheathed in scaffolding pending a patch-up job. The church is not open to the public.
-
St Mary's Abbey
Where now the glories of Babylon? All that remains of what was once Ireland's wealthiest and most powerful monastery is the chapterhouse, so forgotten that most Dubliners are unaware of its existence. In its medieval day, this Cistercian abbey ran the show when it came to Irish church politics, although its reputation with the authorities was somewhat sullied when it became a favourite meeting place for rebels against the crown.
