There are a couple of threads on Dublin already, but only one decent datasheet. And its a few years old at this stage. I've been meaning to write one for a while, and am currently off sick from work with some knee ligament damage, so figured nows as good a time as any.
Preface/about me:
I spent my teens and early 20s living in Dublin for high school and undergrad. I still have lots of friends based there, along with my parents, so spend a few weeks a year there. I'm in my late 20s now so my knowledge of the younger (under 20s) places is a bit limited.
Getting there / the city:
Dublin has extensive air connections to the U.S. (direct flights to Boston, New York, Chicago, DC, Atlanta, Orlando & San Franciso). Its also a regional hub of Ryanair, so has low cost flights to most of Europe. Additionally, the middle-eastern carriers have in the last few years entered the market. There are now 2-3 daily direct flights to Dubai/Abu Dhabi.
Dublin is Ireland's largest city and capital, and is a medium sized city of about 1.2million people. It tends to attract the young/well educated from the rest of Ireland, so is a bit of a mini London in that regard. It also has quite a few large universities: UCD (32k students), Trinity (17k), DIT (22k) and DCU (12k) being the largest.
In terms of city geography, the south eastern suburbs are the more affluent. For visitors, however, you don't want to be staying too far out from the city center. The Dublin2 postcode is to the immediate south of the city, and are where most of the nightlife is. The "Northside" is anywhere north of the river Liffey, which rounds through the center of the city on an east-west axis. The Southside is anywhere south of it.
If you want to stay right in the heart of the nightlife, you should be looking for a place around Camden Street / Harcourt Street in the south of the city center (D2 post code). If you want a bit more luxury, anywhere in Ballsbridge/Donnybrook/Ranelagh will be a bit more spacious, while still being within a long walk, or short taxi ride, to the bars.
The people:
Irish people are one of the most heterogeneous in the world, with small numbers of immigrants only beginning to arrive in the 2000s. In my high school of 500 people there was 1 Asian person, and 1 African - every single other person was white Irish. Its slightly more multicultural these days, but the only minorities a tourist is likely to meet are those behind the counter in McDonalds or driving taxis - they're rarely around the nightlife scene. So if you're into not into white girls you might want to avoid it.
Irish women: are extremely similar to British: a bad diet, excessive amounts of alcohol drinking, and mild summers with no beach culture (temperatures rarely exceed 80F / 25C) mean they tend to carry around an extra 10lb / 5KG of fat. Most girls will still be skinny enough to look good in a dress, but once they're out of it they'll have a bit of a belly. Unfortunately the gym / sports culture of Australia/America for girls has yet to take hold. Skinny girls just tend to not eat, rather than exercise properly. They can be cute enough facially, but tend to wear a lot of makeup (and fake tan). In my experience there are a lot fewer 4s and 9s than in other countries, but a lot more average girls - expect a lot of 6/7s.
The girls are generally more fun than most other nationalities (they like to drink heavily, and education is quite highly prized here so a lot are very sharp intellectually) as friends, but they're not great to deal with in nightclubs. Because of the rarity of 9s any good looking girls have extremely high bitch shields. Of all the English speaking nationalities, Irish girls deal out the most severe putdowns to guys coming onto them in bars in my experience. If you're willing to lower your standards a little its extremely easy to kiss girls in bars/nightclubs (possibly because of the high levels of drunkenness), but the conversion rate to sex is low. Its sort of the opposite of Southern Europe in this regard. There, its hard work to get a kiss, but if you get a kiss you're going home with a girl. In Ireland girls will kiss you for an hour and then drunkenly wander off without a second thought. My best advice is if you start kissing a girl do not let her do any more shots unless you're very sure shes relatively sober - in Ireland more sex is lost from people being too drunk than not drunk enough.
Competition: Irish guys are on average 5ft 10 and relatively skinny. Weightlifting has only taken off amongst men in the last 10 years, so its relatively rare for guys who're 25+ to be in good shape. I'd say 10% of guys in a 25+ bar look like they lift. The diet and booze obviously plays a factor here too. Amongst younger guys (under 23), especially the middle classes who're into rugby, however, weightlifting is the norm. In a bar full of the younger age range in this demographic its more like 50% who lift.
Irish guys aren't known to be particularly good looking, but they are usually charming. The flip side to this is they also get paraplegicly drunk on most nights out. If you want to stand out from the competition here your best bet is to be someone who looks like they lift weights, and isn't smashed drunk. If you can chat up a girl without slurring your words you'll be ahead of 50% of the competition.
The most successful guys you'll see in bars here are the stereotypical American jock - muscles, preppy, tall etc. Rugby is the dominant sport amongst the middle classes, so most girls dream of getting a star rugby player.
Venues:
Pubs stop serving at 23:30 midweek, 00:30 at weekends. Most nightclubs at 02:30. 'late' clubs at 04:30. Pubs will be busy from 22:00, clubs from 00:30, late clubs from 01:30. In no particular order:
Temple Bar: the first and most obvious tourist destination. Its about two square blocks of pubs with nightclub licenses (0230 closing). Massively popular with tourists. Massively overpriced (expect 7eur a beer). The only locals that go here are men who go to pick up tourist chicks - which it IS great for. If you don't want to hit on American tourist girls or English hen parties though I'd advise to steer clear. Its busy 7 nights a week, though, which is rare in Dublin.
Harcourt Street: These are all mostly a 21-30 crowd, apart from the Black Door which skews a bit older (28+).
Coppers - busy 7 nights a week. Open till 0430. Has a reputation as a pickup joint, so is probably the easiest place to bring home a girl from in Dublin. Don't expect lookers though, high quality girls tend to avoid.
D2, Diceys, two different nightclubs, both with large smoking areas. D2 busy at weekends, but gets a lot of stag/hen parties from the UK. Diceys is busy 7 nights a week. Diceys has 2eur drinks midweek, so gets a lot of stingy English language students. Has a Brasilian night on Tuesdays which is excellent - all Brasilian girls.
Krystle and the Black Door have a higher class of people generally. Krystle is Dublin's "celebrity" club so gets that type of crowd. Better looking girls, higher bitch shields. The Black Door is free in, the others usually have cover of around 10eur. Black Door is 28+, and can be fairly strict if you appear to be lower class - its the only place in Ireland I've seen groups of attractive girls being refused from, because they had the wrong kind of accent. If you're around 30 its extremely easy to score in either of these places, if you give off the right "young professional" vibe. Higher chances of a one night stand with the older girls than with younger ones too.
Leeson Street: Bucks and Leggs are two 'late' clubs, open to 0430. People go to either of these when they're smashed drunk but don't want to go home yet. Bucks is a lot nicer inside, but has a 10eur cover. Both a mid 20s crowd. Leggs tends to have easier, but lower quality girls.
House is a relatively new club on Leeson Street. Its extremely pretentious, and has a 30+ age profile, so I do my best to avoid it. If you're 35+ it might be an option though. All three clubs here only busy on weekends.
Camden Street/Georges Street:
The Palace: probably the only real European style club in Dublin: lovely high, vaulted ceiling and commercial EDM. A young crowd though. If you're over 23 you'll stand out in a bad way. Busy for student nights (Wed/Thu) and the weekend.
The Globe / Market Bar / No Name Bar / Hogans / Flannerys/Capitol: these are all trendy bars within 500m of each other. Expect a mid 20s crowd. A bit more hipster than you'd find on Harcourt / Leeson Street, but not overly so. They're nice bars to bring a date to, or go with mates, but aren't great for scoring. Busy at weekends.
South William Street:
Lost Society: A large old house has both of these bars in it. Lost Society is quite fancy inside, but no cover. Plays good EDM music. Its somewhere between a bar and a nightclub, so can be decent for scoring. Busy at weekends. Pygmalion is a bar in the basement that is quite dancey. Expect lots of people on MDMA, and some relatively intense techno. Gets VERY crowded at weekends. Not great for scoring I think because of the crowds - but if you're into that scene its one of only a couple of places in Dublin for it. Both busy weekends.
Ranelagh: this is a suburb immediately south of the city. It's the suburb of choice for 20 somethings with money, and this is reflected in the large numbers of bars and restaurants here. Its a great place to live, but isnt fantastic for gaming. The pubs (Smyths, Russels, Tap House) are again good with mates, but not great for scoring. McSorleys is the exception to this, which has a bit of a reputation as an early 30s pickup place. If you like older women (30ish), and are in the area, its a good choice to call into for a drink or two at the weekend.
Others:
Twisted Pepper (Abbey Street, just on the Northside of the city): 3 different floors, all pretty heavy dance music. The most drugsy club in Dublin - lots of high people. Quite a hipster crowd too.
The Academy (also Abbey Street): lots of gigs here, the crowd varies a lot by gig. From quite ghetto (for mainstream EDM), to all African immigrants (rap), to pop music.
Howl At the Moon (just off Merrion Square, in the D2 post code): 3 floors, mainstream pop music. 21-25 year old crowd. 10eur cover. Its essentially just a large bar with a cover, but it calls itself a nightclub. If you want a more chilled night but still want to talk to women I'd recommend it - lots of less noisey areas where you can have a conversation.
Other suburban areas: there's the odd suburban club (Club 92 in Leopardstown, the Wright Venue in Swords and a few others) but in general they're best avoided. Its mostly just ghetto people, in awful venues.
--
There's loads of touristy stuff to do in the city, that most foreigners who visit I know have loved - the Guinness factory etc. That general tourist information is readily available elsewhere on the web though so I'll leave it out.
Preface/about me:
I spent my teens and early 20s living in Dublin for high school and undergrad. I still have lots of friends based there, along with my parents, so spend a few weeks a year there. I'm in my late 20s now so my knowledge of the younger (under 20s) places is a bit limited.
Getting there / the city:
Dublin has extensive air connections to the U.S. (direct flights to Boston, New York, Chicago, DC, Atlanta, Orlando & San Franciso). Its also a regional hub of Ryanair, so has low cost flights to most of Europe. Additionally, the middle-eastern carriers have in the last few years entered the market. There are now 2-3 daily direct flights to Dubai/Abu Dhabi.
Dublin is Ireland's largest city and capital, and is a medium sized city of about 1.2million people. It tends to attract the young/well educated from the rest of Ireland, so is a bit of a mini London in that regard. It also has quite a few large universities: UCD (32k students), Trinity (17k), DIT (22k) and DCU (12k) being the largest.
In terms of city geography, the south eastern suburbs are the more affluent. For visitors, however, you don't want to be staying too far out from the city center. The Dublin2 postcode is to the immediate south of the city, and are where most of the nightlife is. The "Northside" is anywhere north of the river Liffey, which rounds through the center of the city on an east-west axis. The Southside is anywhere south of it.
If you want to stay right in the heart of the nightlife, you should be looking for a place around Camden Street / Harcourt Street in the south of the city center (D2 post code). If you want a bit more luxury, anywhere in Ballsbridge/Donnybrook/Ranelagh will be a bit more spacious, while still being within a long walk, or short taxi ride, to the bars.
The people:
Irish people are one of the most heterogeneous in the world, with small numbers of immigrants only beginning to arrive in the 2000s. In my high school of 500 people there was 1 Asian person, and 1 African - every single other person was white Irish. Its slightly more multicultural these days, but the only minorities a tourist is likely to meet are those behind the counter in McDonalds or driving taxis - they're rarely around the nightlife scene. So if you're into not into white girls you might want to avoid it.
Irish women: are extremely similar to British: a bad diet, excessive amounts of alcohol drinking, and mild summers with no beach culture (temperatures rarely exceed 80F / 25C) mean they tend to carry around an extra 10lb / 5KG of fat. Most girls will still be skinny enough to look good in a dress, but once they're out of it they'll have a bit of a belly. Unfortunately the gym / sports culture of Australia/America for girls has yet to take hold. Skinny girls just tend to not eat, rather than exercise properly. They can be cute enough facially, but tend to wear a lot of makeup (and fake tan). In my experience there are a lot fewer 4s and 9s than in other countries, but a lot more average girls - expect a lot of 6/7s.
The girls are generally more fun than most other nationalities (they like to drink heavily, and education is quite highly prized here so a lot are very sharp intellectually) as friends, but they're not great to deal with in nightclubs. Because of the rarity of 9s any good looking girls have extremely high bitch shields. Of all the English speaking nationalities, Irish girls deal out the most severe putdowns to guys coming onto them in bars in my experience. If you're willing to lower your standards a little its extremely easy to kiss girls in bars/nightclubs (possibly because of the high levels of drunkenness), but the conversion rate to sex is low. Its sort of the opposite of Southern Europe in this regard. There, its hard work to get a kiss, but if you get a kiss you're going home with a girl. In Ireland girls will kiss you for an hour and then drunkenly wander off without a second thought. My best advice is if you start kissing a girl do not let her do any more shots unless you're very sure shes relatively sober - in Ireland more sex is lost from people being too drunk than not drunk enough.
Competition: Irish guys are on average 5ft 10 and relatively skinny. Weightlifting has only taken off amongst men in the last 10 years, so its relatively rare for guys who're 25+ to be in good shape. I'd say 10% of guys in a 25+ bar look like they lift. The diet and booze obviously plays a factor here too. Amongst younger guys (under 23), especially the middle classes who're into rugby, however, weightlifting is the norm. In a bar full of the younger age range in this demographic its more like 50% who lift.
Irish guys aren't known to be particularly good looking, but they are usually charming. The flip side to this is they also get paraplegicly drunk on most nights out. If you want to stand out from the competition here your best bet is to be someone who looks like they lift weights, and isn't smashed drunk. If you can chat up a girl without slurring your words you'll be ahead of 50% of the competition.
The most successful guys you'll see in bars here are the stereotypical American jock - muscles, preppy, tall etc. Rugby is the dominant sport amongst the middle classes, so most girls dream of getting a star rugby player.
Venues:
Pubs stop serving at 23:30 midweek, 00:30 at weekends. Most nightclubs at 02:30. 'late' clubs at 04:30. Pubs will be busy from 22:00, clubs from 00:30, late clubs from 01:30. In no particular order:
Temple Bar: the first and most obvious tourist destination. Its about two square blocks of pubs with nightclub licenses (0230 closing). Massively popular with tourists. Massively overpriced (expect 7eur a beer). The only locals that go here are men who go to pick up tourist chicks - which it IS great for. If you don't want to hit on American tourist girls or English hen parties though I'd advise to steer clear. Its busy 7 nights a week, though, which is rare in Dublin.
Harcourt Street: These are all mostly a 21-30 crowd, apart from the Black Door which skews a bit older (28+).
Coppers - busy 7 nights a week. Open till 0430. Has a reputation as a pickup joint, so is probably the easiest place to bring home a girl from in Dublin. Don't expect lookers though, high quality girls tend to avoid.
D2, Diceys, two different nightclubs, both with large smoking areas. D2 busy at weekends, but gets a lot of stag/hen parties from the UK. Diceys is busy 7 nights a week. Diceys has 2eur drinks midweek, so gets a lot of stingy English language students. Has a Brasilian night on Tuesdays which is excellent - all Brasilian girls.
Krystle and the Black Door have a higher class of people generally. Krystle is Dublin's "celebrity" club so gets that type of crowd. Better looking girls, higher bitch shields. The Black Door is free in, the others usually have cover of around 10eur. Black Door is 28+, and can be fairly strict if you appear to be lower class - its the only place in Ireland I've seen groups of attractive girls being refused from, because they had the wrong kind of accent. If you're around 30 its extremely easy to score in either of these places, if you give off the right "young professional" vibe. Higher chances of a one night stand with the older girls than with younger ones too.
Leeson Street: Bucks and Leggs are two 'late' clubs, open to 0430. People go to either of these when they're smashed drunk but don't want to go home yet. Bucks is a lot nicer inside, but has a 10eur cover. Both a mid 20s crowd. Leggs tends to have easier, but lower quality girls.
House is a relatively new club on Leeson Street. Its extremely pretentious, and has a 30+ age profile, so I do my best to avoid it. If you're 35+ it might be an option though. All three clubs here only busy on weekends.
Camden Street/Georges Street:
The Palace: probably the only real European style club in Dublin: lovely high, vaulted ceiling and commercial EDM. A young crowd though. If you're over 23 you'll stand out in a bad way. Busy for student nights (Wed/Thu) and the weekend.
The Globe / Market Bar / No Name Bar / Hogans / Flannerys/Capitol: these are all trendy bars within 500m of each other. Expect a mid 20s crowd. A bit more hipster than you'd find on Harcourt / Leeson Street, but not overly so. They're nice bars to bring a date to, or go with mates, but aren't great for scoring. Busy at weekends.
South William Street:
Lost Society: A large old house has both of these bars in it. Lost Society is quite fancy inside, but no cover. Plays good EDM music. Its somewhere between a bar and a nightclub, so can be decent for scoring. Busy at weekends. Pygmalion is a bar in the basement that is quite dancey. Expect lots of people on MDMA, and some relatively intense techno. Gets VERY crowded at weekends. Not great for scoring I think because of the crowds - but if you're into that scene its one of only a couple of places in Dublin for it. Both busy weekends.
Ranelagh: this is a suburb immediately south of the city. It's the suburb of choice for 20 somethings with money, and this is reflected in the large numbers of bars and restaurants here. Its a great place to live, but isnt fantastic for gaming. The pubs (Smyths, Russels, Tap House) are again good with mates, but not great for scoring. McSorleys is the exception to this, which has a bit of a reputation as an early 30s pickup place. If you like older women (30ish), and are in the area, its a good choice to call into for a drink or two at the weekend.
Others:
Twisted Pepper (Abbey Street, just on the Northside of the city): 3 different floors, all pretty heavy dance music. The most drugsy club in Dublin - lots of high people. Quite a hipster crowd too.
The Academy (also Abbey Street): lots of gigs here, the crowd varies a lot by gig. From quite ghetto (for mainstream EDM), to all African immigrants (rap), to pop music.
Howl At the Moon (just off Merrion Square, in the D2 post code): 3 floors, mainstream pop music. 21-25 year old crowd. 10eur cover. Its essentially just a large bar with a cover, but it calls itself a nightclub. If you want a more chilled night but still want to talk to women I'd recommend it - lots of less noisey areas where you can have a conversation.
Other suburban areas: there's the odd suburban club (Club 92 in Leopardstown, the Wright Venue in Swords and a few others) but in general they're best avoided. Its mostly just ghetto people, in awful venues.
--
There's loads of touristy stuff to do in the city, that most foreigners who visit I know have loved - the Guinness factory etc. That general tourist information is readily available elsewhere on the web though so I'll leave it out.
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