Places/Ireland

Leinster

Dublin

A compact capital on the Liffey, in the euro, outside Schengen, and not a theme park of pubs.

Dublin is the right size for a first Irish city: a river, a few good rooms of books and pictures, and neighbourhoods where people are simply having a drink because it is Thursday. The famous pub quarter is a product. The city is older and funnier than that.

Ireland uses the euro and is not in Schengen. Landing here is not the same legal event as landing in Paris. Read the paper before you assume your ninety days are running.

See

• The river

  Cross the Ha’penny or the next bridge on foot, more than once. The Liffey is not grand. It is how the city is organised.

• A library or a gallery

  Trinity’s long room if you accept the ticket and the crowd, or the National Gallery if you want pictures without the queue as the point. Chester Beatty is the quieter marvel.

• A neighbourhood pint

  Not a flight of them. One pub a local friend would not be ashamed of, sat down, in the afternoon or early evening.

• The bay, if the weather breaks

  A train toward Dún Laoghaire or Howth. The sea is close and it resets the brick.