Ha’Penny Bridge in Dublin. Image credit: Pom Pom/Shutterstock
Dublin and surrounds
There’s a brooding romance to Ireland that only reveals itself when you’ve spent a bit of time touring the country. It’s partially due to the scenery, of course. As soon as you’ve stretched beyond Dublin’s suburban sprawl, it’s nonstop dewy greenery and back-in-time pastoral scenes. But really what stands out is the mercurial, elemental intensity that’s so typical of any journey here and the unexpected moments it affords. When the rain lashes down and an impromptu pub pit stop is suddenly essential, you often find yourself led unintentionally – and luckily – to the comfort of a crackling fire and the perfect simplicity of a steaming bowl of chowder.
When the wind picks up suddenly, you see the birds swirl as the barley bows and shimmies in the breeze. The skies here are wondrous. I’ve often pulled over to gaze in awe as a sole golden beam, celestial and hopeful, breaks through sullen, slate-gray clouds to illuminate a slash of the Atlantic Ocean. Wherever you end up going on your own Irish road trip, be prepared for extraordinary moments of true beauty.
That’s why I often tell first-time visitors to Dublin just to take things easy, to crisscross the River Liffey or sit on the grass at Saint Stephen’s Green, framed by grand red-brick Georgian buildings. Of course, that approach doesn’t suit everybody; pressed for something more specific, I’d say to visit the National Gallery of Ireland to see how Irish artists have chronicled the country’s complex history, or to explore the National Museum of Ireland’s Archaeology Collection, a true treasure chest laden with Bronze Age gold jewelry and Viking board games. The Guinness Storehouse, deservedly one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country, is a seven-floor immersion in the country’s most famous drink, and its circular top-floor Gravity Bar resembles the creamy crown of the perfect pint when the light hits it just right.
Kilmurrin Cove in Copper Coast UNESCO Global Geopark, County Waterford. Image credit: Andrea Pistolesi/Getty-Images
Irish writer John O’Ceallaigh takes us on a tour of his green and gorgeous home country
Under Wondrous Skies
Destination: Ireland
March 2026 (Volume 31)
More Inspiration
By John O’Ceallaigh
Summer pub patios on Galway high street. Image credit: Norman Pogson/Alamy
From Kildare, it’s less than three hours’ drive to my hometown of Galway City, a tangle of pedestrianized medieval streets that thrum with buskers’ talents (walk five minutes from Shop Street to Quay Street and you might pass Irish dancers, a unicyclist, and harpists). Here, I invariably dine at Kai, where Kiwi-Irish Chef Jess Murphy serves generous, honest dishes made with uncompromising produce sourced from small-scale Irish farmers, like Connemara crab with grilled aubergine or wild rose sorbet with Dublin cherries. For fine dining, Aniar, meaning “of the west,” only serves Indigenous Irish produce, so citrus and avocados are out, but foraged buckthorn berries and seaweed are in. Anyone visiting Ireland to retrace their ancestors’ footsteps will find further sustenance through the myriad ways Galway provides a gateway to traditional Irish culture: Tig Cóilí fizzles with energy as assemblies of fiddlers and singers perform lively trad music sessions each night; the An Taibhdhearc theater regularly hosts performances in the Irish language; and the whole town bursts into life during the summer arts festival, a weeks-long party.
Galway and the Wild Atlantic Way
Scenic Slea Head Drive on the Dingle Peninsula. Image credit: Michael Thaler/Shutterstock
Follow the Wild Atlantic Way farther south and you’ll come to Kerry. Known as the Kingdom County for its majesty, for me it delivers the most beautiful landscapes in the country – which is saying something in a place that has no shortage of them.
It’s a setting that’s made for driving holidays, infamously home to the teetering, pencil-thin Conor Pass mountain road that rewards brave motorists with views of high corrie lakes and pummeling waterfalls. Significantly more sedate and endlessly beautiful, the Ring of Kerry ripples past thatched cottages, emerald meadows, and old stone forts. Quaint and pretty with its pastel-colored shop fronts, Killarney town is considered the route’s start and end point and sits on the border of the country’s first national park, alongside the Victorian lakeside manor Muckross House that now welcomes visitors.
Kerry and Cork
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Where to Stay in Ireland
Little wonder Dublin is one of the world’s few UNESCO Cities of Literature: a low-rise capital with a neighborly feel, the place is full of stories. In many ways that applies literally – cross Trinity College’s cobbled courtyard and you’ll reach the Old Library, where the vellum leaves of The Book of Kells, a ninth-century gospel manuscript, still shimmers. Its intricately decorated, luminescent illustrations of Celtic knots, religious icons, and mythical creatures are a precious testimony to the well-worn description of Ireland as the land of saints and scholars.
But the city’s other stories are often a bit more personal, and coincidental. After living all over the world, I’m often jolted by my capital’s unusual conviviality – it’s a place where unexpected exchanges unfurl. I remember the barman who kept chatting to me at Grogan’s pub long after I’d started on my Guinness and ham and cheese toastie (in the same family for generations, the pub is intentionally TV- and music-free so customers can listen to each other in peace); the waiter telling me about his acting gigs as I finished my whiskey bread and butter pudding at The Winding Stair restaurant on Ormond Quay Lower, named after a Yeats poem; or the brutally funny exchanges I’d observe between performer and crowd at the Craic Den Comedy Club. Even the most innocuous outing here, to a café or the tailor, can become the basis for an anecdote.
Lagoons, arid mountains, and lush valleys are the backdrop for relaxing year-round
Bunratty Folk Park, Bunratty Castle, County Clare. Image credit: David Lyons/Alamy
The city also connects to the Wild Atlantic Way, a coastal driving route that twists along silver-sand beaches and heathered mountains to reveal so many of the country’s most dramatic landscapes. It’s a short drive onwards to County Clare and the mystery of The Burren, a sloping limestone landscape where castle ruins and huge sheets of balanced rocks, overground burial tombs older than the Pyramids of Giza, dot the landscape. A literal high point here comes from the Cliffs of Moher, with a sheer 700-foot drop and elemental intensity. Facing an endless expanse of ocean, from one moment to another you might bask in glorious sunshine or be blasted by swirling winds.
From there, it’s an easy journey to Cork City. Immersed in a playful rivalry with Dublin, the 225,000-population city belies its accommodating size with a world-class cultural offering. Its October jazz festival is the most prestigious in the country, and regular street-art tours of the city center’s technicolor façades cover everything from Karl Marx to the legacy of old Irish rebels. To engage more sedately with the character of the city, take a balcony seat for a coffee at the first-floor Farmgate Cafe to overlook the activity at the 18th-century English Market. Misleadingly named, it’s an unrivaled purveyor of top-class Irish epicurean produce and makes a fitting last stop on an Irish road trip. To help soften the blow of your inevitable journey home and back to reality, there’s just enough time to stock up on the freshest possible soda bread and crusty buttermilk scones from The Alternative Bread Company. They’re the ultimate Irish comfort foods.
Saint Coleman Cathedral in Cobh, County Cork. Image credit: Brian Jannsen/Alamy
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The Long Room in Trinity College’s Old Library, Dublin. Image credit: Martin Thomas Photography/Alamy
A traditional Irish music jam session in a Dublin pub. Image credit: RobertHarding/Alamy
Outdoor dining at Wrights of Howth. Image credit: Dawid K Photography/Shutterstock
Guinness is Ireland’s world-famous stout. Image credit: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy
Dublin’s manageable proportions mean it’s also a breeze to explore beyond the confines of the city. In adjacent County Wicklow, Glendalough is an ancient monastic site set lakeside in the belly of a glaciated valley. Beside a jumble of lichened gravestones, its impermeable round tower has stood sentry for a millennium. Immediately west of Dublin, County Kildare has found recent fame as the homestead of the actor Paul Mescal, but its Kildare Village retail destination has long drawn astute and discerning shoppers who can secure hefty deals from brands such as Longchamp and Jimmy Choo at its boutiques. Minutes away, the Irish National Stud & Gardens is an unrivaled showcase for Ireland’s equestrian history and supremacy. Aspiring riders can even hop on an animatronic horse to participate in a simulated race.
Kerry’s natural splendor blends seamlessly into the wilds of West Cork and the Ring of Beara’s astonishing landscapes. It’s a strange thing on Ireland’s west coast, the way sloping mountains, shadowy lakes, jagged cliffs, and broad beaches unspool so relentlessly. Irish people sometimes journey to this rugged expanse to clamber onto the Dursey Island Cable Car, the only one in the country. The slow ascent over foaming, frigid Atlantic waters is thrilling or unnerving, depending on your disposition.
For parties that motor onward to Kinsale, however, the response tends to be universally positive. Prosperous and pretty, with its sailboats bobbing gently in the water, it’s another of Ireland’s culinary capitals. Visit seafood specialist Fishy Fishy for a hulking fish pie packed with fresh salmon and carrots, and topped with herby, pillowy house mash. Just perfect.
Gap of Dunloe, County Kerry. Image credit: Essevu/Shutterstock
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