Dublin Northside

Marvel at one of the world’s tallest public works of art as you stroll down this boulevard of shops and historic buildings.

Croke Park in Dublin is so much more than an impressive sports stadium. “Croker”, as it is locally known, is in many ways is a bastion of Irish identity that protects the spirit of Gaelic games from forces seeking to dislodge it. If this all sounds a bit dramatic you should take the fantastic Croke Park Experience tour to get a very real sense of just how important and deeply ingrained the GAA and Gaelic games are to Ireland’s sense of itself.

Once you’ve attended a concert at Dublin’s superb O2, there’s no going back to theatre-style venues where the seating is arranged in regular rows. The audience and artist friendly design of the O2 amphitheatre is often likened to that of Rome’s Coliseum, with blocks of seats emanating out like a great fan from the impressive stage.

Spot this futuristic crystal building rising high in the dockyards and cycle along the grassy banks of the adjacent canal.

Dublin Zoo is not the only place in the city that you can take a walk on the wild side but it is probably the most popular. A firm favourite with families, the zoo attracts more than a million visitors every year, and they just keep coming.

Located a little south of the town of Malahide in County Fingal, the medieval Malahide Castle is an impressive and imposing structure, blending centuries of history in a single setting. While parts of the castle date back to the 1100s, its grounds offer some of Ireland’s best 18th century garden landscaping, making a trip to Malahide Castle a must for both history and nature enthusiasts.

Phoenix Park is so important to Dublin that it has its own law on the statute books and visitors should be aware that one provision of this is that “no person shall act contrary to public morality in the Park”. So watch your Ps and Qs!

Head to the centre of Dublin for a hint of the town’s historic past at the picturesque Clontarf Castle. Built in the 1830s, this stoic Georgian country house stands on the site of a much older building. In fact, the history of the area dates all the way back to the 11th Century, when the original medieval Clontarf Castle stood here.