Dublin: Travel Details
This is a quick and handy source for details on the sights, hotels, tour guides and restaurants featured in the "Dublin and Mystical Side-Trips " show. For much more (and updates), see this year's edition of Rick Steves' Ireland guidebook.
Bru na Boinne
The famous archaeological site properly known as Brú na Bóinne — "dwelling place of the Boyne" — is also commonly referred to as "Newgrange" (actually one of the tombs). The well-organized site centers on a state-of-the-art museum. Visitors are given appointments for shuttle buses that ferry small groups five minutes away, to one of two 5,000-year-old passage tombs where a guide gives a 30-minute tour. Newgrange is more famous, and allows you inside. Knowth (rhymes with south) opened more recently and is more extensive, but you can't go inside the tomb.
Allow an hour for the excellent museum and an hour for each of the tombs you visit. The museum in the Visitors Centre is included in the following prices: Newgrange-€5.50, Knowth-€4.25, both tombs-€9.75, covered by Heritage Card (May–Sept daily 9:00–18:30 or 19:00, slightly shorter hours off-season, Newgrange open year-round, Knowth open April–Oct only, tel. 041/988-0300).
Newgrange Tomb
Newgrange is one single mound, the more restored of the Brú na Bóinne sites. Dating from 3200 b.c., it's 500 years older than the pyramids at Giza. While we know nothing of the builders, it most certainly was a sacred spot dealing with some kind of sun-god ritual. During the tour, you'll squeeze down a narrow passageway to a cross-shaped central chamber, located under a 20-foot-high igloo-type stone dome. Bones and ashes were placed here under 200,000 tons of stone and dirt to wait for a special moment. As the sun rose on the shortest day of the year (winter solstice, Dec 21), a ray of light would creep slowly down the 60-foot-long passageway. For 17 minutes it would light the center of the sacred chamber. Perhaps this was the moment when the souls of the dead would be transported to the afterlife via that mysterious ray of life-giving and life-taking light.
Literary Pub Crawl
Two actors take 30 or so tourists on a walk, stopping at four pubs. Half the time is spent enjoying their entertaining banter, which introduces the novice to the high craic (conversation) of Joyce, O'Casey, and Yeats. The two-hour tour is punctuated with 20-minute pub breaks (free time). While the beer lubricates the social fun, it dilutes the content of the evening (€12, €1 discount with this book in 2006, April–Nov daily at 19:30, plus Sun at noon; Dec–March Thu–Sun only; you can normally just show up, but call ahead in July–Aug when it can fill up; meet upstairs in Duke Pub, off Grafton on Duke Street, tel. 01/670-5602, www.dublinpubcrawl.com).
Kilmainham Jail
Opened in 1796 as both the Dublin County Jail and a debtors' prison, it was considered a model in its day. In reality, this jail was used frequently as a political prison by the British. Many of those who fought for Irish independence were held or executed here, including leaders of the rebellions of 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867, and 1916. National heroes Robert Emmett and Charles Stewart Parnell each did time here. The last prisoner to be held here was Eamon de Valera, who later became president of Ireland. He was released on July 16, 1924, the day Kilmainham was finally shut down. The buildings, virtually in ruins, were restored in the 1960s. Today, it's a shrine to the Nathan Hales of Ireland (€5, covered by Dublin Pass and Heritage Card, daily April–Sept 9:30–18:00, Oct–March 9:30–17:00, last entry 1 hr before closing; €5 taxi; or bus #51b, #78a, or #79 from Aston Quay or Guinness Storehouse; tel. 01/453-5984).
Traditional Irish-Music Pub Crawl
This is similar to the Literary Pub Crawl, but it features music. You meet upstairs at 19:30 at Gogarty's Pub (Temple Bar area, corner of Fleet and Anglesea), and spend 40 minutes in each of the upstairs rooms of three pubs; there, you'll listen to two musicians talk about, play, and sing traditional Irish music. While having only two musicians makes the music a bit thin (Irish music aficionados will tell you you're better off just finding a good session), the evening — though touristy — is not gimmicky. It's an education in traditional Irish music. The musicians demonstrate a few instruments and really enjoy introducing rookies to their art (€12, €1 discount with this book in 2006, beer extra, April–Oct nightly, Nov and Feb–March Fri–Sat only, no tours Dec-Jan, allow 2.5 hrs, expect up to 50 tourists, tel. 01/475-3313, www.musicalpubcrawl.com).