3 Best Sights in Ireland

All 14 Irishmen executed by the British following the 1916 Easter Rising are buried here, including Pádraig Pearse, who led the rebellion; his younger brother Willie, who played a minor role in the uprising; and James Connolly, a socialist and labor leader wounded in the battle. Too weak from his wounds to stand, Connolly was tied to a chair and then shot. The burial ground is a simple but formal area, with the names of the dead leaders carved in stone beside an inscription of the proclamation they issued during the uprising.

Follow the stylized footprints of a mother and child from St. George's Heritage Centre to the Attic Memorial at Carrick Workhouse to step back into tragic Leitrim. This workhouse opened in 1842 to accommodate hundreds who sought refuge here from the Great Famine. With bare floorboards and whitewashed walls, it looks pretty much as it did in the 1840s. Wexford artist Alanna O'Kelly's multimedia installation, No colouring can deepen the darkness of truth, brings a fresh dimension to this thought-provoking place, which also houses a reading room. You can also listen to audio transcripts of witness testimonies from the Famine period. Nearby is a Great Famine Commemoration Graveyard. To arrange a tour, contact the Heritage Centre directly.

Glasnevin Cemetery, on the right-hand side of Finglas Road, is the best-known burial ground in Dublin. It's the site of the graves of many distinguished Irish leaders, including Eamon de Valera, a founding father of modern Ireland and a former Irish taoiseach (prime minister) and president, and Michael Collins, the celebrated hero of the Irish War of Independence. Other notables interred here include the late-19th-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and Sir Roger Casement, a former British consul turned Irish nationalist, hanged for treason by the British in 1916. The large column to the right of the main entrance is the tomb of "The Liberator" Daniel O'Connell, perhaps Ireland's greatest historical figure, renowned for his nonviolent struggle for Catholic emancipation, achieved in 1829. The cemetery is freely accessible 24 hours a day. An impressive museum has a City of the Dead permanent exhibition that covers the burial practices and religious beliefs of the 1.5 million people buried in Glasnevin. The Milestone Gallery has exhibits on key historical figures buried here. They also run great tours of the cemetery itself. You can also climb the refurbished Round Tower, Ireland's tallest, with views of the whole city.