willit

I spent the past weekend in Dublin - my first trip to Ireland. This is more a series of impressions than a trip report, but the bare bones of it is that we arrived at Dublin airport at 9:30 Saturday morning, and left again at 8:30pm on Sunday. Transport from airport to city centre by the 747 bus - tickets from airport €10 return.

Stayed at the Maldron Hotel, Cardiff Lane. Pleasant enough although a reasonable walk into the town centre, and at present in the middle of a building site as there is a great deal of development in the area. Booked via LateRooms for around €100.

Weather was coldish, windy, some rain - not really unexpected for February. No real itinerary, We spent the weekend just wandering with frequent visits to local pubs.

Liked:
Friendly people - People were very welcoming and helpful - including our first "stereotype" ...We were standing outside of a pub called "The Celt" in Talbot street, looking at the menu when a passerby shouted "Ahhh, your looking for food - your at the right place, best F**king food in the city" (it was very good food as well).

Pubs in general - really atmospheric, very welcoming staff, many architectually beautiful, good beer - although I found I enjoyed the various stouts and porters as Messers McGuire and the Porterhouse more than the famous Guinness.

Street art - I thought the famine statues on the quay next to the river were stunning. Other assoted works of art dotted around meant there was always something new to discover.
The Dublin Iwalk podcasts - downloadable from the dublin tourism site - free audio walking tours and maps.

The Post Office in O'Connell street - apart from its historical significance, it is just a wonderful building.

Disliked:
Not foreign enough ! I know this sounds silly and it is obvious given the history etc, but take away the accents, tricolours , Gaelic street signs etc, and it could have been any UK city. This is compounded by the big UK chainstores everywhere.

The expense: Partly due to the weakness of the pound, but it was still a shock - beer at between €4.50 and €6 for a pint, food was also seriously costly e.g around €13 for a simple pizza at most restaurants; €7 for a couple of cappucinos (Cappucini?). We ate a good solid meal of stew and potatoes at The Celt for €10 each, but thereafter just snacked.

The tourists! (Yes I know I am a tourist as well) - all those people in fake Leprechaun hats and beards draped over the statue of Molly Malone singing maudlin songs...... This isn't some St Patricks day Parade, this is the real thing - It is almost as if, having finally got to Ireland, it isn't "irish enough" for some.

Stag and Hen parties.


Overall, I did enjoy the trip - I saw enough to think that I would like to see more of Ireland.

Padraig

A Dublin native responds:

All fair comment, except that I am not particularly taken with the GPO; we have better public buildings to please the eye, including the Custom House just across the river from your accommodation.

I hope you liked the hotel, because the location is not particularly good (neither, to be fair, is it terribly bad).

Dublin should not seem foreign to a British visitor. It is pretty well a British city located in Ireland -- not just the shops, but the history and the architecture.

You can find quite different experiences elsewhere in Ireland, and even get a sense of being in a foreign country. Many Dubliners think the west of Ireland is a foreign place.

willit

Padraig - the hotel was OK, but could have been a buiseness hotel anywhere in the world. The staff seemed to be mostly Polish. Originally we had a booking near St Stephen's Green - which would have been preferrable, but things didn't quite work out as planned - and afterall, it is a place to sleep more than anything else.

A couple of questions that I thought of while in the city - just curious - I don't think I heard Gaelic spoken at all, except for on the television. Is it widely spoken in Dublin? Is bilingualism a neccessity for e.g the Garda or public sector workers?

What is the "Leaning" glass building being built by the river (I walked past but could not find any info on it).

There is huge amounts of development going on around the docklands - are there fears that recession may leave many empty?

One other thing that surprised me was some pro Contingency IRA grafitti - not widespread, but I didn't expect to see it.

Padraig

You can hear a lot more Polish than Gaelic on the streets of Dublin. Only about 3% of the population speak Gaelic as their first language, and most of those are in areas in the west, including a lot of places with high tourism appeal. It used to be that the language was required for public service employment, but that was dropped some years ago. A similar requirement for the Garda Siochana (police) was dropped more recently.

I take it you mean this building: http://www.wtg.ie/_fileupload/Image/...tre%202010.jpg .

The recession might leave many of the buildings unfinished!

The graffiti were probably seasonal: Sinn Fein had a national conference last weekend.

willit

Yep, that is the building - I found it quite striking.

Thanks for the info regarding language. I did hear a lot of Polish, and there seemed numerous shops catering for the Polish population. I found watching Sesame Street in what I presume was Gaelic to be highly entertaining.

Percy

Maybe I am easy to please but I liked everything in Dublin.

The Custom House
The Post Office
Trinity College
Temple Bar
Grafton Street strolling
Ha,penny Bridge
St.Stephen Gardnes nice to walk around here.

O'Connell Street and monuments

and of course Molly Malone !

Guiness beer, .........I bought some Guiness beer upon my return home and it was like dishwater compared to the real stuff in Ireland !!

You know what else was nice to walk about and see...The Doors !

Thanks for the report willit

willit

I certainly didn't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy myself in Dublin. I felt very comfortable there and my initial thoughts were that, given a sizable enough bank balance, it would be a good place to live and work.

I tried to list brief impressions of both good and bad (The latter mostly tongue in cheek). If there was one thing that made me slightly uncomfortable, it was my nationality. It is difficult being seen as part of the oppressor.

I hasten to add this was not an impression gained from the people, but more from the inscriptions on statues/ historical sections in guidebooks/ decorations in pubs and the perfectly understanable degree to which the "heroes of Irish liberation" are celebrated. My wife, not being British by birth, did not feel this discomfort.

The brightly coloured front doors were very cheerful.

I have a few holiday snaps on the web at http://preview.tinyurl.com/c2mlnc

gertie3751

I enjoyed your pictures Willit. How long has the Famine Memorial been there? I can't believe I missed it when I was there in 2006. It looks as if it's along the quayside.

Padraig

willit write: "It is difficult being seen as part of the oppressor."

No problem there: we hate England, but not the English. It's part of our ambiguity.

Percy

Thanks for the picture postings.

I never entertained the thought that you did not enjoy Dublin.