I had posted this question last year and was advised to avoid Dublin during a weekend, due to crowds of weekend travelers. However, my schedule now seems to lean toward arriving in Dublin on a Friday night and spending three days there,after touring the South and West of Ireland. Please advise me about how much my stay in Dublin will be impacted by a weekend versus mid-week visit. We are in our mid-fifties and will be staying at the Merrion Hotel. Thanks for your help.

Well am perplexed by your conern. Dublin is most animated on Saturdays when everyone comes in to shop. Sundays are very quiet. I don't see your concern- not a factor at all. Really a non-issue.

PalenqueBob....I'm thrilled to learn that Sundays are quiet. I had heard,thru this forum and one or two travel articles, that Dublin was filled with weekenders from around Ireland and the UK and that the City was loud and crowded. I'll make my reservations to arrive on Friday with confidence now. Thanks for the advice.

You will find the sidewalks crowded, that is for sure. We visited Trinity College to view the Book of Kells and other Bibles of that type, which are excellently displayed I thought.
When we left the campus area, we walked along some of the shopping streets. It was Saturday afternoon, and Dublin seemed to be the center of the world.
The good part is that there is a lot of activity and if you are the gregarious type, you can strike up a good conversation in most any pub.
I do not recall an experience where I found as many people who seemed more than glad to engage in a friendly chat.
I felt like I was one of the regulars rather than a total stranger.

The Temple Bar area of Dublin has been a favourite location for British mass-drinking weekend parties. So it's been at least as - well let's say lively - as the equivalent area of any British provincial town on Friday and Saturday nights.

This has now been dampened down by a combination of local discouragement and the discovery of cheaper booze and more accessible gratification at other Ryanair destinations in Central Europe. The area is now just boisterous st weekends, and frankly sleepy midweek.

The rest of Dublin is pretty much unaffected by all this.

Temple Bar is quite busy on weekends. It tends to be a pretty young crowd and many have complained that the streets outside their room were filled with loud drunks all night long making it hard to sleep. That depends on the location of your hotel. I think that you can have plenty of fun on the weekend, but plan carefully where to stay. I'd like to try it on a weeknight. Persnally, I'm not in to packed pubs and screaming drunks so I could use a bit of sleepy

Bill

Just returned Thursday, November 13 from a week in Ireland traveling by car from Shannon to Cliffs of Morer to Dublin to Cork and back to Shannon. We spent Saturday and Sunday nights November 8 & 9 in a B&B outside Dublin and commuted by local bus in and out of the city. The weather was in 50s and clear except for a brief shower mid afternoon Sunday that provided a rainbow over the city. Great day for pictures and watching war veterans gather at St. Patrick's Catheral for Remberance Day. Yes, Dublin was busy as any major capital city is on weekends, but certainly manageable and fun. This was made better as November is low time for tourist season. Saturday night in Temple Bar was exciting with many young people (we are in our late 50s). We walked in an excellent restaurant in middle of Temple Bar at 6 PM without reservations, were seated and served immediately with very good food. On Sunday morning we toured the city on one of the double decker tour buses, got off, shopped, toured some sites, got back on the bus to return to Guinness brewer for a tour, and returned to Temple Bar for 5 PM dinner at another nice pub, seated and served immediately. Dublin was fun on our November weekend.