The Dublin Community Blog

Now that it’s allegedly summer, I thought I’d kinda resurrect a previous post and do up a little Visitor’s Guide to Dublin which might be useful to those of you coming on your holliers here over the next few months.

I thought I’d break it up into categories, to make it easier to read, so that you don’t all fall into a coma after paragraph 15, so for now I present to you, The Weather and Getting Around on Foot.

The Weather

There is really only one thing to remember when it comes to Irish weather – it rains. Every day. Without fail. See that blue sky up there? See the blazing sun? Feel the warm wind on your cheek?

All fake. Every bit of it. Don’t believe a word of it.

It waits, you see, the Irish weather. It waits for you to leave your hotel or guest house, clad only in shorts, Jesus sandals and an ‘I heart Dublin’ t-shirt and then it pisses down upon you with the wrath of Zeus. If you take nothing from this post at all, take the next three words as seriously as if your life depended on it – Pack. An. Umberella.

And don’t be fooled if it doesn’t rain for a couple of days, don’t be fooled if Ireland’s favourite weather girl Evelyn Cusack tells you that it’s sunny days ahead, that only means the weather is gearing up for something big.

Like a monsoon.

To survive in Dublin you’ll need to carry at all times: an umbrella, a rain coat/mac (preferably lined so that it doesn’t get all sticky and sweaty), a change of socks and some tissue paper/a small towel to dry yourself off with.
These are essentials, forget them at your peril!

Getting around on foot

Dublin is a big city, even the city centre stretches over quite a distance but there are a number of attractions contained within the city centre, so your best bet is to explore on foot. For this you’ll need a map and the easiest way to get one is to go to the tourist centre on St Andrew’s Street, just off Dame Street – it looks like a church, in fact it WAS a church but now it’s a tourist centre and a good one at that.

You’ll note that Dublin is split into two halves – northside and southside – divided by the River Liffey. North of the Liffey there’s O’Connell Street, the GPO, Henry Street (shopping area) and large tracts of people walking around in their pjamas, while southside there’s Grafton Street (shopping area) St Stephen’s Green, the Molly Malone statue and large tracts of people walking around in designer clothes saying Oh! My! God!

Whatever you do, don’t walk around holding the map out in front of you trying to find your way about – instead study it in your hotel, pick a route and just keep the map in your bag for emergencies. If you walk around with the map, you’ll immediately be picked out as a tourist and we WILL point and laugh at you.

Just a little bit of local advice if you’re asking for directions: Dublin people don’t know the names of the streets in the city centre. So there’s no point asking where South Anne Street is, because we don’t know. Oh we know where it IS alright, we’ve been on it, we could lead you there by the hand, but a little Irish idiosyncracy is that we don’t actually quite know what the street is called. So learn to ask for landmarks, instead of street names. Say “I want to go to the Dail” instead of “I want to go to Kildare Street” cos it’ll save you time.

The last, most vital thing, to remember about walking around Dublin is that it is a major, capital city and as such there is a huge amount of traffic on the roads, so be really, really careful when you’re crossing the street. You may see people jaywalking, weaving between cars, casually stepping out into oncoming traffic and strolling along without a care in the world and with the agility of a mountain goat, but do not attempt to imitate them. These people are Irish. You are not.
They have an in-built radar which tells them exactly what speed an oncoming vehicle is doing and how long it’ll take to cross the road, before the vehicle gets to X spot.

You, on the other hand, have very crushable bones. Cross at the pedestrian crossings only and always wait for the traffic to stop fully before walking out – In Ireland our pedestrian crossings have a little green man figure for go, a little red man figure for stop and a little orange man figure in between the two for ‘run like fuck, the lights are about to change’.

Next installment to come soon: Public Transport, the dos and don’ts!