Dublin Calling

By Daniel Franklin

Here's all you really need to know about Dublin. A few months ago, when the city allowed pubs to extend their evening hours, some of Dublin's hottest nightclubs, including the Kitchen, frequented by supermodels and owned by U2 band mates Bono and the Edge, went straight out of business. What's not to love about a city that would rather share a pint and conversation with friends than rub elbows with the rich and gorgeous?

A decade of prosperity has ushered in touches of Continental cosmopolitanism--and has attracted more and more American executives to visit the Irish outposts of such big American firms as Motorola, Intel and Bristol-Myers Squibb--yet Dublin remains the gentlest of Europe's capitals. Sure, some venerable fish-and-chips shops are offering cappuccino alongside fried cod, and a few pub menus are substituting bruschetta for bacon and cabbage. But wild deer still lope through Phoenix Park, the largest city park in Europe, and the pub keepers still draw a Guinness with the reverence and ritual of a Japanese tea ceremony.

The emerald part of Ireland--its lush countryside--is on vivid display just a 30-minute drive (or bus ride) away at Powerscourt, a 14th century castle whose gardens unfold among the Wicklow Mountains. Renovated and expanded in the 17th century by the English Marshall of Ireland, the castle is a jewel of Georgian formality that has served as movie backdrop for Laurence Olivier's Henry V and Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. Even if it's raining--and by St. Patrick, it's likely to be--spend some time along the trails winding through the 45-acre castle gardens, the equal of any in Europe. A short stroll can take you to the Japanese garden or the pet cemetery, a lovely if slightly surreal highlight. If you have a little more time, Powerscourt Waterfall, the highest in Ireland, is just three miles away.

Across the road from the castle is the championship-caliber Powerscourt Golf Club, where you can play for $90 to $100 (reservations required; e-mail [email protected]). With its vales of 200-year-old oak trees and views of Great Sugar Loaf Mountain and Dublin Bay, the course fits nicely with its stately clubhouse and the neighboring castle. For longer stays, the golf club rents apartments, and it can accommodate business groups. Both castle and club have restaurants, but it's worth the short walk to the winsome village of Enniskerry for sandwiches and a pint at the Glenwood Inn, an unassuming traditional pub just across from the clock tower that presides over the town center.

If you can't make it out of Dublin, the meticulous gardens of St. Stephen's Green will do fine. The Hugh Lane Gallery and the newly remodeled National Gallery are worth a visit as well; each features collections of Irish and French Impressionists.

Dinner in Dublin is no longer the tragedy it used to be. Sleek, glass-walled restaurants are sprouting throughout the Temple Bar neighborhood. Here you'll find updated Irish cuisine such as Bruno's haunch of venison with celeriac mousseline and Eliza Blues' beautiful gooseberry tart. (The prices are updated too. Dinner at a top restaurant costs $60 a person, including wine.)

Any good night, or any bad one for that matter, will end in the pub with a pint of Guinness or Bulmer's sublime hard cider. With a pub for every 450 Dubliners, it's hard to go wrong, but two favorites are Thing Mote and the Stag's Head, which, a few years older than the American republic, is a traditional haunt of Trinity College students. Irish music is on tap nightly at O'Donoghue's Bar and the Temple Bar (in the heart of the neighborhood that shares its name), where you can also enjoy a beer garden, a fine plate of oysters and an impressive collection of Irish whiskeys. "A good puzzle," James Joyce's Bloom posited, "would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub." A challenge, indeed, but Sweet Molly, why would you want to?