My husband & I are arriving in Dublin on Sunday 12/31/23 in the late afternoon and departing on the morning of Wednesday 1/3/24. We have toured Ireland including a day in Dublin two decades ago. It appears that the musical pub crawl and walking tours of Dublin are not operating during this time - looking for other recommendations. Also would like to make a reservation for a special dinner or two - currently looking at The Pigs Ear, Delahunt, Etto - only open on 1/2/24 while we are visiting. Other restaurant recommendations? Also we love U2 and Glen Hansard - any of their haunts that we should explore?
Thank you - Kathy
Posted by
Chicago
555 posts
I've been to Dublin town four times, including once in November as the holiday season was getting under way.
Some ideas: 1. Visit the Dublin Writers Museum. I've seen three museums dedicated to writers in general -- the other two were the Scottish Writers Museum in Edinburgh and the American Writers Museum in Chicago -- and Dublin's was by far the best. A separate museum on James Joyce is only a couple blocks away. 2. See a play at either the Gate Theater or the Abbey Theater. The Gate has better actors, and the Abbey has better playwrights, I find. 3. Go to an Evensong performance at Christ Church Cathedral; St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Catholic Pro Cathedral probably have something similar. This will spark the holiday mood, even if it's after Christmas. 4. Visit Kilmainham Gaol. You'll learn some fascinating history about the Irish War of Independence and the Easter Rising. (I'm not a mystical sort of person, but I have been to two places in Ireland that I swear are haunted, and Kilmainham Gaol is one of them; the other was a Victorian-era workhouse I saw about 30 miles northwest of Dublin.) 5. If you want to get out of Dublin for a day, a fascinating site about 25-30 miles south is Glendalough (https://glendalough.ie/), a monastic city that dates to around the Ninth Century AD. St. Kevin founded it. Glendalough hosts some fascinating antiquities. And the site is set in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains, which has some glacial trenches and great walking trails.
Restaurant. I love Gallagher's Boxty House (https://www.boxtyhouse.ie/) in Dublin. Boxty is a kind of Irish taco. Back in the day, people would split open a potato and stuff it with greens, meats and so on. Today, boxty is much more gourmet.
Posted by
OP
South Huntington, NY
7 posts
Thank you for so many great ideas Craig