World City Guide

Culture

Dublin’s rich literary culture has led to a flourishing film industry and varied theatre repertoire of Irish classical and contemporary works. The Temple Bar district is the main cultural centre. The annual highlights are the Dublin Theatre Festival in late September/early October and Dublin Film Festival in March. In between, there is a richly varied programme for one to choose from.

Most tickets can be purchased on the night, costing anything from 5 to 70 (for the best seats at the opera). Tickets are also available at outlets of HMV stores, in Henry Street and Grafton Street, from Dublin Tourism, Suffolk Street (bookings in person only), or from Ticketmaster (tel: (0818) 71 93 00; website: www.ticketmaster.ie).

There is a very good website for events throughout Ireland (website: www.entertainment.ie). The fortnightly magazine In Dublin is good for Dublin events listings. Dublin Tourism (website: www.visitdublin.com) also has online events listings that are updated daily.

Music: Opera Ireland (tel: (01) 478 6041; website: www.operaireland.com) and the innovative Opera Theatre Company (tel: (01) 679 4962; website: www.opera.ie) perform regularly at a variety of venues, including the Gaiety Theatre (see Theatre section below) and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Charlemont House, Parnell Square North (tel: (01) 222 5550; website: www.hughlane.ie). However, the main classical music venue is the National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace (tel: (01) 417 0000; website: www.nch.ie), which is home to the National Symphony Orchestra.

The largest concerts (classical and popular) take place at The Point, East Link Bridge (tel: (01) 836 3633; website: www.thepoint.ie). This is a thriving venue, where Riverdance, classical music and ballet performances are held, as well as major pop performances. The RDS (Royal Dublin Society) Concert Hall, Merrion Road, Ballsbridge (tel: (01) 668 0866; website: www.rds.ie), caters for both large pop/rock events and smaller classical concerts.

Theatre: Ireland’s national theatre, The Abbey Theatre, is located in Abbey Street (tel: (01) 878 7222; website: www.abbeytheatre.ie). Set up by W B Yeats in 1904, it is a historic and reliable venue for high-quality Irish drama. The Peacock Theatre, in the same building as the Abbey, has a more experimental repertoire. Orson Welles and James Mason began their acting careers at The Gate Theatre, 1 Cavendish Row (tel: (01) 874 4085; website: www.gate-theatre.ie), which is still going strong. The city’s first music hall, The Olympia Theatre, 72 Dame Street (tel: (01) 679 3323), and Gaiety Theatre, South King Street (tel: (01) 677 1717; website: www.gaietytheatre.com), put on anything from the Irish classics to pantomime. The Projects Arts Centre, 39 East Essex Street, in Temple Bar (tel: (01) 881 9613; website: www.project.ie), offers a varied programme of poetry readings, drama and dance.

Dance: Dublin’s dance groups include CoisCim Dance Theatre, 14 Sackville Place (tel: (01) 878 0558; website: www.coisceim.com), Rubato Ballet, 19 Stamer Street (tel: (01) 453 8657; website: www.iol.ie/~rubato), and Irish Modern Dance Theatre (tel: (01) 874 9616), who perform a potent mix of poetry, music and drama at Dublin’s various theatres. The Association of Professional Dancers, Space 28, North Lotts (tel: (01) 873 0288; website: www.prodanceireland.com), provides information on performances and festivals, including Riverdance (website: www.riverdance.com). Anyone can join in traditional Irish dancing after a pint or two at the O’Shea’s Merchant Pub, 12 Bridge Street Lower (tel: (01) 679 3797).

Film: Dublin’s first public screening took place on 20 April 1896 and James Joyce opened the first cinema, Volta, in 1909. At the end of the 20th century, Irish film culture enjoyed a Golden Age, with Dublin at the forefront. John Houston lovingly adapted a short story from James Joyce’s Dubliners into his final film, The Dead (1987). Two years later, Jim Sheridan’s film adaptation of Dublin writer-artist Christy Brown in My Left Foot (1989) won international acclaim and an Oscar for Daniel Day-Lewis. Educating Rita (1983), Michael Collins (1996) and The General (1999) are among the best-known recent films to have captured Dublin on celluloid, together with Alan Parker’s The Commitments (1991), telling Roddy Doyle’s story of gritty young Dubliners to audiences worldwide. As for Roddy Doyle, he has his own production company: Deadly Films.

Art films are shown at the Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street (tel: (01) 679 5744; website: www.fii.ie), and the Screen, D’Olier Street (tel: (01) 672 5500). Mainstream cinemas include the Savoy, 16-17 O’Connell Street Upper (tel: (01) 874 6000), and the vast UGC Multiplex, Parnell Street (tel: (01) 872 8444). The Irish Times, Evening Herald and Irish Film Centre publish cinema listings.

Cultural Events: The main cultural event is St Patrick’s Day, on 17 March, when the entire city comes to a standstill for the year’s greatest celebration of Ireland and all things Irish. During summer, the first two weeks of June see in the AIB Music Festival, with top-class chamber music coming to various Georgian houses throughout the city. Bloomsday, 16 June, is the major literary event of the year, as the seminal works of James Joyce are celebrated on the anniversary of the day that Joyce’s protagonist, Leopold Bloom, took his fictional walk around the city. The first two weeks of October see yet another cultural highlight in the form of the Dublin Theatre Festival, which takes place at various venues around the city.

Literary Notes: Dublin’s literary history dates back at least to around AD800, with the Book of Kells. The real Dublin heavyweights, however, date from the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th century, Dublin-born Bram Stoker wrote Dracula (1897). Vampire lovers will enjoy a visit to St Michan’s Church, to see his family crypt. Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and, most of all, James Joyce, later took up the mantle for European, not just Irish, literature. James Joyce’s difficult Ulysses (1922) is considered by many literary critics to be the finest novel ever written. The Nobel Prize for literature was won by W B Yeats in 1923, by George Bernard Shaw, author of Pygmalion (1916), in 1925, and by Samuel Beckett in 1969. The McDaid’s pub on Harry Street inspired famed writer and drinker Brendan Behan, author of The Borstal Boy (1958) and The Hostage (1965). Contemporary writers include Christy Brown, author of My Left Foot (1989), Maeve Binchy, with numerous bestsellers, including The Lilac Bus (1992) and Circle of Friends (1991), and Roddy Doyle, whose novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha won the Booker Prize in 1993.