Throughout the Georgian era, O’Connell Street was very much the fashionable part of Dublin for residential housing.  However, many of the fine buildings were destroyed during the Easter Rising,  including much of the General Post Office - only its original facade remains.  Today this main thoroughfare is lined with shops and businesses.  Nearby attractions include St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral and James Gandon’s Custom House, overlooking the Liffey.

The Abbey Theatre was founded in 1898 with WB Yeats and Lady Gregory as co-directors and staged its first play in 1904.  The early years of this  much lauded national theatre saw works by WB Yeats, JM Synge and Sean O’Casey.  Many productions were controversial and nationalist sensitivities were severely tested in 1926 at the premiere of O’Casey’s ‘The Plough and the Stars’, when the flag of the Irish Free State appeared on stage in a scene which featured a pub frequented by prostitutes.  The audience got so angry that WB Yeats himself had to come out to try and restore order. 

The Gate Theatre had orininally been the grand supper room at the Rotunda.  Today the Gate is renowned for staging contemporary international drama in Dublin.  The Gate Theatre was founed in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheal Mac Liammoir.  The latter is now best remembered for ‘The Importance of being Oscar’, his long-running one man show about Oscar Wilde.  An early success was had here with Denis Johnston’s ‘The Old Lady Says’ No’, so called because of the margin notes made by Lady Gregory, founding director of the Abbey Theatre.  Although still noted for staging productions of new plays, the Gate’s current output often includes classic Irish plays such as Sean O’Casey’s ‘Juno and the Paycock’.  Many famous names in the acting world got their first break at the Gate Theatre, including James Mason and a teenage Orson Welles.

The Dublin Writers’ Museum was opened in 1991 and occupies an 18th century town house.  There are displays relating to Irish literature over the last thousand years.  The exhibits include paintings, manuscripts, letters, rare editions and mementoes of Ireland’s finest authors.  The museum also frequently hosts poetry readings and lectures.

Originating from the mid 17th century as a market place, Smithfield used to be one of Dublin’s oldest trading and residential areas and people came to the cattle and horse fairs for which the area was famous.  Nowadays the horse fairs are not that popular with the Dublin authorities - the thinking is that such events have no place in a modern city.  However, horse traders and public seem to take no notice and if you’re in town on the first Sunday in the month, you might want to check it out.

The Smithfield area of Dublin also contains the old Jameson’s Distillery.  Whiskey was has been produced here from 1780 until 1971.  The place is run by Irish Distillers Limited and while they obviously want to talk up their products (Jameson, Paddy Bushmills and John Power), it is an impressive, educational and entertaining experience.  Visits start with a video, Uisce Beatha - the Water of Life, ‘uisce’ meaning ‘water’.   Further whiskey related facts are then explained to the visitor during the tour.  Different rooms are devoted to  the various stages of whiskey production, from grain storage right through to bottling.  The tour guides are keen to point out how the barley drying process differs from that used in the production of  Scotch whisky - in Ireland the grain is dried through clean air while in Scotland it is smoked over peat.  They claim that this results in a smoother Irish tipple compared to its more smoky Scottish counterpart.  At the end of the tour visitors can test this claim in the bar.

What used to be the distillery chimney has been turned into an observation tower which is reached by a lift.  You get a fabulous panoramic view of Dublin from here.

Linking Temple Bar and Liffey Street on the north bank of the river is one of Dublin’s most famous and most photographed landmarks, the high arched footbridge that is known as Ha’penny Bridge.  It was originally called Wellington Bridge, after the Duke of Wellington.  It was first opened in 1816 and got its nickname from the ha’penny toll that was levied on it.  The toll was scrapped in 1919 but the nickname had stuck and is used by all.  Ha’penny Bridge is most attractive at night when it is lit up - people cross over the bridge to go through Merchant’s Arch into the bustling nightlife of Temple Bar.