A view of Temple Bar, Dublin. Photograph © Thad Samuels Abell II

Dublin
By Raphael Kadushin

Not since the 18th century has Ireland's city of stories enjoyed such prosperity.

"Maybe people in other cities think you're some kind of serial killer if you talk to strangers on the street," Irish novelist Maeve Binchy says, "but we're never at a loss for words here. Wait on line for any Dublin bus, on any Dublin street corner, and you'll hear story after story after story."

These days the bus riders have plenty to talk about, and most of what they're saying revolves around Dublin itself. That's because Europe's backwater city has become its stylish front-runner. What lures both natives and newcomers are the spoils of an economic boom heard across the continent and a cultural renaissance evident everywhere in town—from brand-new hotels to new-cuisine restaurants.

In Dublin, though, regardless of how fast things change, you can still count on a pint of Guinness and one more tale with your scampi risotto or sashimi.

Fast Facts

The Republic of Ireland's capital city, Dublin is also the country's largest metropolis (the breakdown: more than 50 percent of the city's one million people are under the age of 25). The Liffey River divides the city into two unequal halves. While the once fashionable O'Connell Street bisects the homey north side, new and improved Dublin—and a good many of its showiest attractions (Temple Bar, Trinity College, the Georgian squares, and the Old City)—sit south of the river. Rain sprinkles the city throughout the year, though the clouds can clear in a fickle Irish second. Temperatures stay relatively mild even in the winter. The city's calendar of events is crammed—from the Dublin Toy and Train Fair in November and the Dublin Theatre Festival in October to Bloomsday on June 16, when the entire town commemorates the novel Ulysses, James Joyce's 1922 bittersweet ode to his hometown.

Don't Miss

If it's raining, duck into a purely Irish museum or two. The Dublin Writers Museum collects mementos of Ireland's original storytellers, including W.B. Yeats and Jonathan Swift, while the National Gallery flaunts an impressive range of Irish genre paintings (best among them: the Joshua Reynolds portrait of the Earl of Bellamont impersonating the ultimate dandy in a pink plumed headdress that's strictly Viva Las Vegas). When the sun breaks, take a carriage ride around leafy St. Stephen's Green, past the shimmering emerald lawns that underscore the luck of the Irish. Then stroll the Georgian quadrangle of Trinity College, the kind of rarefied campus where even the Examination Hall comes lit by a gilded chandelier and the Old Library puts the "first" back in first edition: On permanent display is the ninth-century illuminated manuscript The Book of Kells. Wind up on popular, pedestrians-only Grafton Street, with its round-the-clock performers, including a Gaelic breed of Elvis impersonators who can make "Blue Suede Shoes" sound alarmingly like "Danny Boy." They're happy to pose, but the better photo op is the statue of 18th-century street vendor Molly Malone, called by locals "the tart with the cart" and "the dish with the fish."

Neighborhoods to Know

Living proof that Dublin has evolved from clueless to cutting edge, Temple Bar has become Europe's party central. Originally a raffish quarter where U2 played music and Sinéad O'Connor waited tables, it now bulges with hip boutiques, galleries, clubs, and young day-trippers; on weekend nights a polyglot tangle of foreign languages pours out of the bistros. If the beat grows too hyper, there's an antidote: the genteel tranquillity of the Georgian south side. Bordering Trinity College and home to the city's most elegant restaurants and hotels, the district's upper-crust air isn't too crusty. While the rows of Georgian town houses wear faces of austere red brick, their arched doorways are painted plum, lemon yellow, scarlet, spring green, and aqua, like an irrepressible splash of high spirits.

Power Shopping

For the purely raucous feel of ungentrified Dublin, cross Halfpenny Bridge to the north side and visit Moore Street Market, where modern Molly Malones hawk towering pyramids of melons, apples, oranges, and, of course, potatoes. Back on the south side, Francis Street comes lined with rows of shabby-chic antique shops, like the eclectic, stocked-to-the-rafters O'Sullivan Antiques, where an improbable stuffed lion hungrily eyes the tufted Victorian settees. The fashion-forward crowd will find plenty to ogle, from the Prada frocks at Brown Thomas, Dublin's most stylish department store, to the romantic, all-Irish couture at the Design Centre and the deconstructed, bigger-is-best slackerwear at Hobo. More literally homespun (and knit) souvenirs can be found at House of Ireland, piled with enough fisherman sweaters to outfit a flotilla. Other good Celtic mementos include the Georgian door knockers at Knobs & Knockers and the explosion of Book of Kells mugs, stitch kits, and key chains crowding Trinity College's Old Library gift shop.

Where the Locals Eat

At Leo Burdock's, the golden take-out fish—served with crispy chips—tastes like it jumped straight out of the North Sea and into a frying pan; it makes for the most soulful picnic in town. More Gaelic comfort food is dished up at the Stags Head, (a classic pub rimmed by eight stained-glass portraits of dignified-looking deer) and at Gallagher's Boxty House, where you can get your potato pancakes served with a side order of leek and potato soup, mashed potatoes, or fried potatoes. If that's one spud too many, sample Dublin's growing selection of sizzling, contemporary restaurants. Among the most adventurous is Patrick Guilbaud, which won a pair of Michelin stars for the way it puts the brogue into haute cuisine (try the Connemara lobster). Just as memorable: the Tea Room restaurant in the Clarence hotel, drawing crowds for grilled sea bass that's as elegantly understated as the hyperstylish dining room; the Merrion hotel's Mornington restaurant, whose around-the-world specials range from Irish lamb cutlets to crab risotto; and Eden, where the only potatoes you'll encounter are organic, served with roast magret of duck.

Lodgings of Note

Dublin's two newest luxe hotels may look like dueling divas, but each attracts its own distinct crowd. At the 50-room Clarence, fittingly situated in the heart of Temple Bar and owned in part by U2, supermodels and ordinary aesthetes are backdropped by jewel-toned fabrics, Shaker-simple furniture, and Nehru-jacketed desk clerks who look ready to hit the catwalk themselves. The 145-room Merrion, on the other hand, comes inspired by a dream of the past. Its four restored Georgian terrace houses—all opulently trimmed with crystal chandeliers and wedding-cake plasterwork—exude a hushed air of urban retreat. For comparable aristocratic effect at a distinctly plebeian price that includes a hearty Irish breakfast, try the just opened 30-room Harrington Hall, a pair of lushly refurbished 18th-century Georgian town houses in the heart of town. In a former life, the property was home to Timothy Charles Harrington, lord mayor of Dublin from 1901 to 1904.

Nightlife

Any cultural pilgrimage calls for a stop at the Abbey Theatre, founded by Yeats and famous for its impeccable staging of Irish classics. The Peacock Theatre, downstairs, tends to showcase more contemporary talents. But for a taste of truly New Age Dublin, take a tour of its next-generation clubs. The Front Lounge (a trendy spot near Temple Bar) is filled with underfed hipsters perched on overstuffed couches. For the very model of Euro-chic, line up at the Kitchen (where David Bowie did an impromptu show when he was staying upstairs at the Clarence) or popular Lillies Bordello—a velour-draped neo-Victorian disco packed with cyber-age lords of the dance. You'll find a far cozier attitude at the wood-lined bar at O'Donoghue's, where Gaelic folk groups turn every evening into a Celtic jamboree.

Working Out

Save the iron-man regimen for home; there are plenty of opportunities for kinder, gentler, and thoroughly Irish workouts here. Try the Brennanstown Riding School, just south of Dublin, where you can go cantering through the Wicklow Mountains. Links lovers should contact Golfing Ireland, a reservation center that books tee times for 37 clubs throughout the country.

Three-Hour Itinerary

Tour the medieval Dublin Castle and the 12th-century Christ Church Cathedral for the quickest survey of the city's past. Then drop by Bewley's Oriental Café on Grafton Street, where generations of Dubliners have gone for stew and shepherd's pie. If the sun is shining, go the takeout route and grab a sticky bun or epic scone from the bakery section up front and stroll over to the Merrion Square central garden, an ethereal pocket of flora punctuated by a brightly painted statue of Oscar Wilde cocking one eyebrow, as if ready to unleash the last word in sharp-tongued style.

By the Way

The inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula may well rest on a cozy street in north Dublin, in the vault of St. Michan's Church. For a sense of Eire's eerie side, walk past the tombstones jutting like broken teeth out of the churchyard and down the broad stone steps that lead to a crypt containing four open coffins holding mummified corpses that look ready to clank to life as soon as the sun sets. Stoker, a Dublin homeboy whose relatives are buried in St. Michan's, was mesmerized by this weird quartet, according to local legend. What's known for sure is that St. Michan's Church has been standing since 1095 and the church organ (1724) was played by Handel.

The information in this story was accurate at the time it was published, but we suggest you confirm all details before making travel plans.