Best Temple bar for music and fun??

O'Shea's Merchant is fun.

It's touristy but the Temple Bar in Temple Bar has live music all day. Evenings can get super packed though.

Pubs in the actual Temple Bar district can get really packed and roller-derby rowdy (frequently with stag/hen parties) especially in the Summer or on weekends in the off-season. These pubs line the main east/west drag (Fleet Street at the east end turns into Essex Street at the west end) that runs up the middle of the district. The most popular of these are the actual Temple Bar pub, the Quays, the Auld Dubliner and Goggartys. Live music here is mostly of the strum-along-sing-along type rather than a real traditional Irish music session. Often, this is all travelers are looking for. But it depends on your definition of "music and fun". Being packed into a loud, small space and screaming/spitting into the ear of the guy next to you, while dodging puddles of "sidewalk pizza" might not be what you're looking for. So you might want to consider walking a couple blocks further east along Fleet Street from these and venture into The Palace (near the corner of Fleet Street and Westmoreland Street). It's not a fluffed-up tourist pub like so many others, but rather an old fashioned original where famous Dublin writers often hung out. You can actually have a conversation there instead of shouting over the din. Music sessions are sporadic here. In the middle of the district you'll find another fun throwback pub called the Ha' Penny Bridge Inn. They often host live music or stand-up comedy. Meanwhile, at the other (west) end of the main drag, there is the Porter House (near the corner of Essex and Parliament Street). It gets fairly crowded too. But it's a micro-brewery, so you can find interesting new beers if you're tired of the Holy Trinity: Guinness, Smithwicks and Harp. There is often music here. If you don't want to limit your pub quest to Temple Bar, try these other worthwhile Dublin drinking holes (www.google.com/maps will plot their locations): The Brazen Head, O'Shea's Merchant, Cobblestones, the Stag's Head and Doheny & Nesbitts.

Thank you all for your suggestions!! We are looking foward to visiting Temple Bar and Dublin.

We just did the Musical Pub Crawl that starts at Grogarty's Pub and found it well worth the 12 euro cover. The two musicians were entertaining and informative and while it was geared for tourists, we learned about Irish music and culture. At the end of the 2.5 hours, they gave us names of several pubs that host real Irish music "sessions" where the musicians are there to play for each other as opposed to the tourists. Had we had another night in Dublin, I might have gone to one of those pulls.