Dublin
Why go?
In 2009 Dublin was ranked as the 10th richest city in the world
(and the 5th richest in 2008) - it may be booming but it ain't
cheap. Ireland's capital, the ‘durty aul town,’ now
gleams with fusion restaurants, trendy coffee shops, juice bars,
BMW showrooms, minimalist hotels – and celebs (look out for
Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore or Robert DeNiro). Over 1.5 million
people – that’s nearly half the country – now
live in the city, and it’s an astonishingly young population,
swelled by students at TCD (Trinity College Dublin), weekending hen
parties and an explosion of start-up businesses. If Joyce, Beckett
and Wilde were around today, they would never have emigrated.
But it’s not all glitz and glamour. The old city – its
Norman cathedral, its castle, its Georgian squares – is as
much of a draw as ever. The vast halls, pretty quads and
1000-year-old manuscripts of Trinity College still attract crowds
of intellectuals and tourists alike.
As for its pubs – over 1,000 of them – they are still
as cosy, welcoming and spontaneously musical as you imagined: a far
cry from the identikit gastropubs of most British cities. The
Dubliners remain friendly, witty, and remarkably unpretentious,
given the swagger of life around them. And through it all the River
Liffey continues to flow placidly, dividing the city in two and
(reputedly) bringing the softest water for a perfect pint of
Guinness.