Dublin punches well above its size in literary weight (Joyce, Wilde, Beckett, Yeats, four Nobel laureates from a city smaller than most European mid-sized towns) and that history is still walkable, pub by pub, square by square.
Georgian Dublin and Trinity College
Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square are the best-preserved examples of Dublin's Georgian architecture, with their famous brightly-coloured front doors, said to have been painted differently so residents returning drunk from the pub could find their own house.
Trinity College's Old Library houses the Book of Kells and the Long Room, a barrel-vaulted chamber lined with 200,000 antique books, arrive at opening time to see it without a scrum of visitors.
Pubs and Traditional Music
Temple Bar itself is largely a tourist trap at this point, best avoided in favour of pubs a few streets over (Kehoe's, The Long Hall, or Grogan's) where the Guinness pour is taken as seriously as the conversation.
For traditional music, seek out a genuine session rather than a scheduled show, pubs like The Cobblestone in Smithfield host informal gatherings of musicians most nights, and the quality and spontaneity of the playing is unmatched by anything staged for tourists.
Recommended Stay · Dublin · Georgian Quarter
The Merrion Hotel
Four restored Georgian townhouses facing Government Buildings, with an art collection worth a private tour on its own and a spa built around the original 18th-century garden.
