Help with Dublin, Ireland

We will be traveling to Ireland for the first time in early November. Some of the trip will be a guided tour, hosted by a local Irish/Celtic singer. He will be showing us “his” Ireland. In addition, I am planning to spend a few extra days in Dublin. All advice concerning restaurants, PUBS, and attractions will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!
Marshall

Bump!! C’mon…no info on Ireland??

Cheers!
Marshall

We went last August / September. I will check notes and get back to you. Meanwhile, write to Mike Grammer and ask for his diary from a couple years back.

PM sent.

Hi Marshall, great to hear you are visiting us over here in Ireland! I run a wine importing company based in Dublin bringing in boutique wines from fairly small producers in California, South Africa, Argentina and France. I also make a wine out in Napa, and we have just released our first SB called Maze as well as our 2009 CS which we will release later in the year. I can certainly hook you up with some great restaurants, and arguably more importantly, Pub recommendations. If you let me know what type of food/restaurants you are interested in I can narrow it down slightly as we have a lot to offer!

Paul; Thanks! That is awesome! I would love some restaurant and especially pub ideas! I would like the restaurants to be more “Irish” than international and hopefully featuring Irish products. As far as “pubs”, we would love some info on traditional rather than overly touristy pubs…especially any that feature music. Please send me a PM or simply answer with a post.
Thank you again!

Cheers!
Marshall

Marshall-

Depends a bit on where you are staying- but Dublin is a great walking town. Pubs are everywhere- and its not like you are going to find the “fake” pubs we have here. They are all fun, charming, pour the best pints of mothers milk you will ever experience, and the Irish are not shy…they are fun, gracious, charming, witty and like to spin some yarns…oh yes, I am Irish too!!

Thanks Jay; We plan on walking quite a bit. We will be staying at the Davenport which is very close to Trinity College and Merrion Square. Do you have any specifics?

Thanks!
Marshall

One other thing I’ll do, Marshall, if I remember, is I’ll ask one of the key contributors over at the Wine-Pages board and have him contact you. Sean should have a bunch of good ideas. I think Brian Haughey is on this board, he should be able to help too.

I did just today send him the famous diary, Nancy!

That is good, Mike since I am not good at writing notes! We stayed at the Hotel Conrad (a Hilton) for an amazing price through Priceline or one of those sites. Walked through St. Stephen’s Green and the Temple Bar areas, national Museum to see my grandmother’s cousin’s works among others, and took the Hop on Hop Off bus. I think it is valid for 24 hours so time you purchase of a ticket. All pubs can be fun and many have Traditional Music.

We stayed at a Georgian Bed and Breakfast on St Stephen’s Green (heart of the city) called, The Green Door. Very nice. We ate at Derry Clarke’s restaurant L’Ecrivain, and it was wonderful. Stopped for a pint at O’Donoghue’s (lot of trad music). I’ll have to look up wherever else we were at.

Thanks Karl!! Why would you possibly stop for a pint at a place called O’Donoghues?

I look forward to your other recollections!


Cheers!
Marshall

Marshall, the reason to go to O’D’s was more because they have a good pint (I am talking about Guinness here, as in porter or stout, because there is a lot of mysticism behind the search for the perfect pint, and where you get a good pint - in fact to digress [irish people are great at digressing as you will find out], my dad told me a story of going to Kenmare and into a pub for a pint, and he met a guy in the bathroom smoking a cigarette [which you are not supposed to be doing as you can only smoke outdoors nowadays, but the fella was hiding from his wife, who didn’t know he smoked or so he said, which is idiotic but back to the story] … and my dad responded when engaged in conversation by the smoker, that the pint was a good one in that particular establishment, to which the smoker replied that yes, it was … and that he had a bad pint in the pub next door, and then followed by another bad one - to verify if the first bad pint was a fluke - but it wasn’t, so the smoker left that particular bar and came next door, and it took 6 good pints to remove the bad taste of the first 2 bad ones .


I asked my brother, a while back for more info, as he lives there … and a friend was heading over … this is what he told me …

“You can get DART to both Malahide and Howth, I’m not sure how far apart they are but it would be a good trip to go on. They could also take the dart to Dalkey and be by the sea, also Bono, Van Morrison and Enya live there, it’s a good sample of Dublin village life. Nice feel. it’s safe and you can walk anywhere. But it would be a more of a ramble rather than a structured tour with definite places to go.
Shopping is a tough one, Grafton St is probably the best. There’s not much. But you can get the Luas from Stephen’s Green to Dundrum (you can pitch that as Ireland’s premier mall or some shit like that, everything under one roof, see what is taking the locals away from the city centre). 20 mins on Luas from Stephens Green, and a bit of local knowledge is that you don’t get out at the ‘Dundrum’ stop, you get out at the one after it.
I suppose you know bout the Guinness Storehouse that is the biggest attraction in the city, you do a self-guided tour and at the top there’s a bar and you get a free pint of Guinness and are overlooking the entire city. I hear the Jameson distillery is better but I’ve never been.
Also there is the gallery of photography in Templebar, government run, that is well cool, free in and not too big so you would be done in a half hour. Great postcards too, recently I got a black & white one of all these people praying and a tricolour in the background, it was a prayer vigil during the civil war. Also got one of these three rugged looking men on the back of a cart, they had just been evicted by I don’t know who. It was from Wexford and the year was 1883. I told Dad to go there and he had a great time.
There are day tours to Glendalough, would be nice, buses go from Dawson St. glendaloughbus.com
Restaurant we went to is town bar and grill, they pitch themselves as a New York-style Italian restaurant. It’s in a basement and the atmosphere is great - lots of stone and pillars and the likes. Also it is on the same street as the Dail (Kildare st), so you could find yourself dining next to a prominent politician. When we went Mary O’Rourke was at the table next to us.
Another place is LE GUEULETON. It is just off George’s St. Very central and a smash hit with the locals. French cuisine,prices are reasonable (below top dollar for sure),good service and it’s where all the locals go. Very authentic. And they don’t take bookings, if they don’t have a table you give them your number and they will call you when a table is ready - that’s a good opportunity to go to the Long Hall across the road on George’s St, an old Dublin pub. Great for conversation and no music blasting, the only music is the sound of conversation.
Pubs. Kehoes on Anne St (just off Grafton st). Proper barmen. Lots of locals. Old-school. Great Guinness. The conversation always flows when you are there, and also time melts away - manys the time we went at 5pm for just the one after an afternoon’s shopping and ended up there til closing.
Another is McDaids. That is off Grafton st too, by the Phil Lynott stature. Small, homely, great Guinness and it’s where writers like Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh drank…there are pictures of many writers on the walls. Dad told me once that Patrick Kavanagh went for an editing job in the Times but didn’t get it, and he felt it was because he was perceived as a big thick bogman, and he came into McDaids and the guy who actually got the job was there, so he poured a pint over the guy’s head. The place is small but it’s got history.”

Karl; Thank you…that response is simply awesome!!! The more I read, the more excited I become. The idea of sitting in a pub and talking for hours is a perfect vacation scenario. Thank you for your response and the response from your brother…
The whole concept of the “mythical” great pint is fascinating. My wife loves Guinness and we try it wherever we travel. So far, the best “pints” have been in Halifax, Nova Scotia but I am pretty sure nothing will compare to having a few in Dublin.

By the way, I have heard many favorable comments about O’Donoghues…I was just joking about the name.

Thanks again!
By the way, just for fun…this is the gentleman leading our small tour…give a listen
http://www.youtube.com/user/twilightlordsfan#p/a/f/2/uEKX5PHuz-k

Cheers!
Marshall

You’re welcome Marshall. Glad I can help. No offense taken. The fella leading your tour sounds like Christy Moore (which is a compliment), and I’m sure you are in safe hands.
Karl

Hopefully not to late to contribute something…I’ll just cut and paste an email I sent to one of the Philly crew who is visiting Dublin in October. I was just there a couple of week ago.

If you want to do an offline, post something on:

http://www.wine-pages.com/cgi-bin2/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=2

The two guys (and their gals) I had dinner with were Sean Hardon and Will Cashman. They were great fun, and very knowledgeable wine lovers.

The wine-oriented restaurant we did the offline at was Ely Bar & Brassarie (there are 3 Ely restaurants, all different apparently). Down in the vaulted cellars in their private room, good wine list and the food was excellent. Short walk from Connolly station.

If you want to do some day trips out of Dublin, the train running north and south is very easy and efficient. Inside the station, there are ticketing agents (depending on size of station and time of day), but the machines are logical and easy to use and take credit cards. In Dublin, you are probably going to get on at Pearse Station which is a few blocks from St. Stephen’s Green/Grafton Street, etc.

In Dublin, lots of museums, have to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. I always like the pedestrian-only Grafton Street for shopping and people watching, and eating lunch at Bewley’s on Grafton St with their famous stained glass windows. Buy some pastries there and take it to St. Stephen’s Green (Dublin’s Central Park). Fun bars and restaurants in Temple Bar, the bar district.

Fun train trips:

1. 30 min north on the train to Howth, which is the fishing village at the end of the peninsula that makes up the north end of Dublin Bay. There is a a beautiful cliff walk at the end of town. Also, being a big fishing harbor, there are many fish restaurants. Just walk out the pier nearest to the DART station.

2. 30 min south on the train to Dun Laoghaire (Larry’s Castle!). The largest harbor in Western Europe I heard, each pier is >1 mile long, so a great walk. Not really a commercial port, although the Senna high speed boat to England docks here, but lots of sailing. If you’d like a fun sailing trip, try the 54-foot Explorer which makes 3 trips a day. Dun Laoghaire is a fun town to explore and they have lots of summer festivals and a wonderful farmers market on Sunday morning (10-2PM I think). James Joyce museum is there in the Martello tower featured in the opening chapter of Ulysses (a block from my Mom’s condo, technically this is Sandycove, not Dun Laoghaire). Best restaurant is Caviston’s, but hard to get reservations (and they serve dinner only on Fri and Sat). Get a “99” ice cream cone at the famous Teddy’s (a Dairy Queen-like soft-serve with a crumbly Cadburry Flake chocolate bar stuck in it). Stop by Mitchell & Son’s near Caviston’s (they also have a shop near Ely) and get a bottle of pure pot still Green Spot Irish whiskey to take home (only 1200 bottle production), one of the great whiskeys of the world.

http://gosailing.ie/
http://www.dunlaoghaire.ie/category/events/upcoming

http://www.mitchellandson.com/green-spot-whiskey-c-35.html

3. Take the train to Dalkey, or just walk there from Dun Laoghaire. See the castle. Have a beer at the King’s Inn (where local resident Bono of U2 hangs out), or some steak & kidney pie outside at the Queen’s pub. Walk around the back roads and see some great views. Visit Coliemore harbor and get a ride out to Dalkey Island from one of the fishermen and see the 1000+ year-old church and Martello tower and the 19 goats that live there.

4. Take the train south to Bray, which is sort of a touristy beach village, but has a great cliff walk. You could walk all the way along the Bray cliff walk to Greystones (I haven’t done that, but my Mom has) and then take the train back to Dublin. Haven’t really found a good restaurant in Bray, so maybe just get some fish & chips on the waterfront.

Here’s a wikipedia article that lists the stops for the DART (there are also commuter trains on the same lines).

Have a Guinness for me!

Thanks Kevin!! Definitely not too late!
A Guinness ( or two) it is!

Cheers!
Marshall

Bump! The trip is only about 9 days away…any more last minute suggestions and contributions?

Cheers!
Marshall

At a faux Irish pub in Boulder, Colorado, they have a drink called a black and tan.

My tip (even though I’ve never been there) - Never order a black and tan in Ireland. My Irish friends boycotted the place because of that.

If there’s a hurling match on, Marshall, you might look to take that in—it is supposed to be the fastest sport on two legs, I think kind of a mix between Lacrosse and Field Hockey if I don’t misremember.