Dublin holds four national cultural institutions within a twenty-minute walk, a state theatre founded by Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1904, and a converted Royal Hospital housing Ireland's modern art collection. Most of it costs nothing to enter.
Opens 09:15 Mon-Sat, 11:00 Sun. Free permanent collection of 16,300 works including Caravaggio's Taking of Christ, rediscovered in a Jesuit dining room on Leeson Street in 1990. The Yeats Museum holds 30 Jack B. Yeats oils.
The 1762 square retains near-complete Georgian terraces with fanlights, boot-scrapers and coal-hole covers. Oscar Wilde lived at No. 1, W.B. Yeats at No. 82, Daniel O'Connell at No. 58. Plaques mark each.
IMMA occupies the 1684 Royal Hospital, Ireland's first classical building, modelled on Les Invalides. Collection of 3,500 works, strong on Irish contemporary practice — Dorothy Cross, Kathy Prendergast, Sean Scully. Tue-Sat 11:30-17:30.
Houses Francis Bacon's entire Reece Mews studio, relocated from London in 1998 — 7,000 items catalogued dust and all. Also Ireland's share of the disputed Lane Bequest Impressionists, rotated with London's National Gallery.
The Treasury holds the Ardagh Chalice, Tara Brooch and Derrynaflan Hoard. The bog bodies gallery displays four Iron Age men, including Clonycavan Man with his hair gel of pine resin imported from France.
MoLI opened 2019 in two Georgian houses where Joyce studied. Displays 'Copy No. 1' of Ulysses and Joyce's own notebooks. The name puns on Molly Bloom. Gardens open to the public with a café.
Ireland's national theatre, founded 1904 by Yeats and Lady Gregory, site of the 1907 Playboy riots. The current 1966 building replaced the 1951 fire. Tours cover the Peacock studio stage and the portrait collection.
Home of the National Symphony Orchestra in the former UCD Great Hall, converted 1981. The 1,200-seat main auditorium retains the 1914 Exhibition building's proportions. Kevin Barry Room hosts chamber and trad recitals.
Ireland's first public library, opened 1707 and unchanged since — dark oak stacks, 25,000 volumes, and three wired 'cages' where readers were locked in with rare books. Swift was a governor. Bullet holes from 1916 remain in some spines.
Francis Street is Dublin's antiques quarter, with dealers in Georgian shopfronts. The National College of Art and Design on Thomas Street shows degree work in its free gallery — the June graduate show is the city's best read on emerging practice.
Artist-run since 1983, with 30 working studios above a ground-floor gallery. Free exhibitions of Irish and international contemporary art. Studio members open their doors during the annual open house, usually late November.
Camden Street's session pub, upstairs sessions Thursday to Sunday from around 21:30. Unlike the tourist-facing Temple Bar houses, players here rotate a genuine tune repertoire and expect quiet during sets.