Here are nine reasons why I love Dublin, Ireland’s capital city and one of Europe’s best.
How do I love thee Dublin? Let me count the ways!
Grafton Street at Christmas
Grafton Street’s a wonderland…especially at Christmas.
Home for the holidays never seems so good as when you’re walking down Grafton Street under chandeliers of Christmas lights. The pedestrian-only thoroughfare is jammed with shoppers, performance acts and good cheer.
On Christmas Eve Bono comes by to sing a few tunes with Glen Hansard and other huge talents for charity. What’s not to like?
The Shelbourne Hotel
The Shelbourne Hotel, on St. Stephen’s Green.
Ireland’s crossroads, everyone who is anyone mixing in the lobby and the huge coffee room at the Shelbourne Hotel. Enjoy all the famous faces from famous places.
Stephen’s Green
St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin city on a sunny day.
A small park that serves as a mini Central Park for workers, joggers, and lovers. For a moment, you can lose the honking traffic and just watch the ducks feed and swim quietly in the lovely pond. Celebrated in song and story.
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The Grand Canal
Poet Patrick Kavanagh still sits along the banks of the Grand Canal.
Connecting the Liffey to the Shannon, the canal wanders past beautiful parts of old Dublin as it heads south. Patrick Kavanagh’s bench is still there (he wrote a poem about the canal).
Then there’s the Royal Canal, made famous by Brendan Behan on the Northside.
Croke Park
The heart of the GAA, Croke Park.
Pick any Sunday in August and there is bound to be a big match at “Croker” on Dublin’s northside as it is known.
It is a beautiful new stadium and the atmosphere, especially when teams from counties rarely playing at the business end of the season are taking part. An all-amateur sport like hurling is a must-see experience
Leopardstown racecourse
Off to the races at Leopardstown.
Some miles out of the city center one of the prettiest racecourses in the world with a fabulous Dublin mountains backdrop and a natural amphitheater. The place to be in the days after Christmas when the crowds flock.
The Merrion Hotel
The gardens inside the Merrion Hotel.
Just off Stephen’s Green, a comfy old-world drawing room a bright blazing fire lit. Obama stayed here and so did the Clintons. You will see why. There is a wonderful atmosphere.
Trinity College
The quad in Trinity College.
One of the few major universities situated smack in the middle of a city. Home college to Edmund Burke and Samuel Beckett among others not to mention the Book of Kells and its beautiful buildings.
Kilmainham Gaol
Historic and haunting Kilmainham Gaol.
Kilmainham Gaol where the 1916 Rising ended and the march of the Irish to the Irish Republic began. Reach out and touch the history, see the cells the founders of the Irish nation were kept in, follow their path to execution and know they made Ireland a nation once again.
* Originally published in 2017, updated in Dec 2024.
