I will be spending six days in Dublin at the end of March. I have made reservations at two hotels in two very different neighborhoods and am deciding which reservation to cancel. One reservation is at the Pembroke Townhouse in the Ballsbridge neighborhood and the other is the Trinity City Hotel located on Pearse across the street from Trinity College. Trinity City Hotel costs about $40 - $50 per night more than Pembroke. While I like its proximity to Dublin's night life and some of the sites I will be visiting I am wondering if the street is noisy at night. What happens when all of pubs close, for example. In Seattle a comparable neighborhood is Belltown which is not, in my opinion, a good place to be when all of the semi-drunks walk up and down the street. My issue with Pembroke is that it might be too quiet for me - I would like some restaurants nearby, and that it is somewhat far away from the sites/sights of central Dublin. Is the commuter train a good means to get to central Dublin which will be my jumping off point for the rest of the city? Is the walk from central Dublin to Ballsbridge safe? (ie, my guidebooks says that north of the river is sketchy at night so how about this neighborhood? I would not expect any problems here based on the description of the neighborhood but might there be areas to avoid?).
Thanks for your input.