"Baile Atha Cliath-Dublin" a Dublin Travel Page by cimc

Dublin is a place where everyone should feel welcome. For such a small city it has everything; nightlife, culture, shopping.... What you will find though is that tourists end up going to places where there are lots of other tourists and very few Dubliners. I blame Temple Bar which started out in the 80s as an attempt to create a "Rive Gauche" in a depressed city, but as ended up being a magnet for Stag and Hen Parties from the UK-they all look like they are having a good time but forgive me if I don't want to spend my evening sitting beside a woman with a giant condom on her head!!! That said we love to to chat away with strangers and you should meet some interesting characters with very little trouble at all.

It's True-they are the best pubs in the world (but then again I am biased). Irish Pubs in general and Dublin ones in particular are the best-if you go to the right ones. O'Neills (pictured) is a good place to start-esp since it's right across the road from the main tourist office on Suffolk Street. Thankfully they have not trendied it up or pulled out the old fixtures. In Traditional (or as Iike to call them-proper) Pubs sitting up at the bar is the best way to meet a local who will regale you with random theories, facts and lore-not as awful as it sounds. Don't be alarmed if the person seems to be overly pessemistic-this is a natural by-product of being a downtrodden nation for so long.

Lots and lots of gigs and other random happenings in Dublin-which has a really vibrant music scene. I am not hugley into traditional music but there are scores of bands and singer/songwriters performing all over the city every night. Check out Hot Press (music magazine) or The Ticket supplement in Thursday's Irish Times for listings. That there on the right is my friend Aoife McElwain who is an example of a great singer/songwriter-if you see her name check her out! Some of the best places for music are Whelan,s, The Village, The Issac Butt, Eamonn Doran's, Parnell Mooney's and the Temple Bar Music Centre. As great artists are constantly being produced from Dublin you might get to see the next U2 before they are famous-act now!!