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Dublin
Dubliners are fiercely
proud of their city, and while DUBLIN is the Republic
of Ireland's capital
it is quite apart from, and can be dismissive of, the rest of
the country - one Dublin wag once remarked with characteristic
caustic humour that "the only culture outside Dublin is
agriculture". Over the past decade, as young people from
rural Ireland and all over Europe, gravitate toward the city to
share in the wealth, not experienced since Dublin's much celebrated
Georgian heyday, this urban/rural divide has started to wane.
As a result Dublin exudes the style and confidence of any cosmopolitan
European capital - most apparent at night when Dubliners party
with a panache verging on the reckless. Dublin's economic upturn
is impacting on the city's rapidly changing urban landscape too,
with restaurants, cafés, bars and clubs opening in abundance,
and Dublin's famous pub scene is now matched by an equally celebrated
club scene. On the downside, however, its reputation as one of
the party capitals of Europe has attracted droves of "alco-tourists"
who arrive in the city for booze-fuelled weekends; they have
become such a problem that some areas of the city, such as Temple
Bar, have actually banned stag and hen parties.
The continual drift of
population from the land to the capital has brought its fair
share of problems too as Dublin is now bulging at the seams.
Spend just a couple of days here and you'll come upon traffic
congestion and inner-city deprivation as bad as any in Europe.
The spirit of Dublin is undergoing massive upheavals too, with
youthful enterprise set against a leaden traditionalism that
harks back nostalgically, as in the words of one popular folk
song, to "Dublin city in the rare old times". However,
the collision of the old order and the forward-looking younger
generations is an essential part of the appeal of this extrovert
and dynamic city.
If you approach Dublin
by sea, you'll have an opportunity to appreciate its magnificent
physical setting, with the fine sweep of Dublin Bay and the weird,
conical silhouettes of the Wicklow Mountains to the south providing
an exhilarating backdrop. Central Dublin is not big, and it's
easy to find your way around. One obvious axis is formed by the
river, the Liffey , which runs from west to east and acts not
only as a physical, but also a social and, at times, psychological
dividing line. The northside , distinctly working class, with
some areas blighted by unemployment and drugs, stands in stark
contrast to the affluent neighbourhoods of the southside .
The transformation to top
of Europe's economic class has cast the city economically and
culturally into the heart of the continent. This new-found cosmopolitan
chic has its home in the vibrant Temple Bar area, "Dublin's
Left Bank", with its numerous pubs, clubs, galleries and
restaurants. However, for many visitors, the city's heart lies
around the best of what is left of Georgian Dublin - the grand
set pieces of Fitzwilliam and Merrion squares, and their graceful
red-brick houses with ornate, fan-lighted doors and immaculately
kept central gardens, and the wide but strangely decorous open
space of St Stephen's Green. The elegant southside is also the
setting for Dublin's august seat of learning, Trinity College and its famous library where you can see the exquisitely
ornate Book of Kells ; Grafton Street , the city's upmarket shopping
area; and most of the city's museums and art galleries.
North of the Liffey, the
main thoroughfare is O'Connell Street , on which stands the General
Post Office , the scene of violent fighting in the Easter Rising
of 1916. Further north, among Georgian squares older and seedier
than the ones you'll see on the southside, are the Dublin
Writers' Museum
and the Hugh
Lane Gallery .
West again, and you come to Dublin's biggest open space - indeed,
one of the world's largest city parks - Phoenix Park , home of
both the President's Residence and the zoo.
The urban sprawl quickly
gives way to the genteel villages which punctuate the curve of
Dublin Bay, from the fishing port of Howth in the north, to the
southern suburbs of Sandycove with its James Joyce connections,
Dalkey , made famous by the comic writer Flann O'Brien, and salubrious
Killiney , now colonized by the rich and famous. Added to this
is the fact that Dublin must be one of the easiest capitals to
escape from, making it a good base for exploring the hills and
coastline of Wicklow to the south and the gentler scenery to
the north that leads up to the megalithic monuments of the verdant
Boyne Valley .
Dublin is divided into
north and south with the river Liffey acting as a physical, social
and at times psychological dividing line. Traditionally the southside
has been regarded as the wealthier end of town, and certainly
from a visitor's perspective it does possess the majority of
the city's historic sites as well as being the home of the newer,
more upmarket centres for shopping and socializing. The busy
traffic intersection, College Green , which is framed by the
elegant exteriors of Dublin's premier university Trinity College
and the old eighteenth-century parliament building, now housing
the Bank
of Ireland , was
once the central point of the old Viking city. Stretching south
of here is the pedestrianized Grafton Street, the city's commercial
and social hub, leading to the stylish Georgian streets that
surround St. Stephen's Green . Heading directly west of Trinity
College, however, will bring you to the narrow, cobbled lanes
of the Temple Bar area, the centre for the city's nightlife,
overlooked by the imposing facade of Dublin Castle , the seat
of British rule until 1921. Further west still are Dublin's most
important cathedrals, Christchurch and St Patrick's , it's near
here that the rich smell of malting grain from the nearby Guinness
brewery begins to fill the air.
On the northside of the
river from the brewery is the historic Smithfield area, scene
of the famous horse sales and home to the Jameson Whiskey distillery,
east of which is the city's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street
from which the rebellion was launched that resulted in Irish
independence.
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