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Fáilte go hÉirinn
Country45 places · 90 museums
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★ Has its own city story
Tombs older than the pyramids, monks' books of gold, music in every town and a people who travelled the world.
Ireland is an island of green fields, cliffs and stone walls on the edge of the Atlantic. Its monks kept learning alive in the early Middle Ages, and its writers, from Swift to Joyce and Beckett, changed world literature. See the Book of Kells in Dublin, the gold of the Bronze Age at the National Museum and the paintings of Jack B. Yeats at the National Gallery. Plan your museum days on museumtickets.com, then find a session of traditional music and a warm slice of soda bread.
Tomb builders, monks, Vikings, famine and freedom.
Farmers build a great passage tomb that lines up with the sunrise at midwinter.
See it at: Brú na Bóinne Visitor CentreMonks make one of the most beautiful books in the world.
See it at: Trinity College Dublin – Book of KellsPotato blight brings famine; about a million people die and a million more emigrate.
See it at: EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum →Rebels declare an Irish Republic in Dublin.
See it at: GPO Witness HistoryThe Irish Free State is founded; it later becomes the Republic of Ireland.
See it at: National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History →A pirate queen, a rebel countess and the first woman president.
Gráinne Mhaol, a 16th-century sea captain from Mayo who led her own fleet and met Queen Elizabeth I in 1593.
See it at: Westport HouseA countess who fought in the Easter Rising and in 1918 became the first woman elected to the British parliament.
See it at: National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History →A lawyer who became Ireland's first woman president in 1990 and later UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
From jewel-like stained glass to Francis Bacon's studio.
Painter of Irish life in thick, bright paint; brother of the poet W. B. Yeats.
Stained-glass artist and illustrator whose windows glow like jewels.
Designer and architect from Wexford, a pioneer of modern furniture.
Born in Dublin; his whole London studio was moved to the Hugh Lane Gallery.
Soda bread, stew and potato cakes.
Quick bread made with buttermilk and soda instead of yeast.
Lamb or mutton slowly cooked with potatoes, onions and carrots.
A potato pancake from the north-west.
Mashed potato with cabbage or kale and plenty of butter.
A fruit loaf for Halloween, with a ring hidden inside.
Rush crosses, a goat king and the roots of Halloween.
People weave crosses of rushes for St Brigid, which are hung over doors for luck.
Parades, music and green everywhere for Ireland's patron saint.
The biggest festival of traditional music, with sessions in every pub and street.
In Killorglin a wild goat is crowned king for three days.
The old Celtic feast of the end of summer, the root of Halloween.
Bring a rain jacket in every season.
Many national museums in Dublin are free; book where asked.
Cars drive on the left; country roads are narrow.
Ask locals where the traditional music session is tonight.
On museumtickets.com: 90 museums with photos, the way there and the museums nearby. Save your favourites in the free Culture Passport and, where the museum offers it, pay your admission in advance.
From the airport to the city centre by public transport, then the trains and local lines to the museums.
Lines and timetables change. Check the operator’s website before you travel.
From the temples of Malta to the Wall in Berlin: Europe is one big cultural family. One site to plan your museum days, in your language.
