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Ten things you didn't know about Dublin {Gadling}
Nov 12th 2008 6:46PM I appreciate you're trying to be lighthearted but this is a pretty poor travel piece about Dublin.
The factual errors in such a short piece are myriad - just because the Guinness store sells sweatshirts doesn't mean they sponsor athletics teams (they don't), and the docklands part of town features numerous buildings significantly taller than the Guinness brewery (though the underlying principle of building out not up does indeed apply in Dublin.)
I suppose what irks me most is the failure to engage with Dublin on any meaningful level. It sounds like the author got no further than Temple Bar (where Irish people go to work, or transit through en route somewhere else, never to socialise - it is a dedicated, overpriced tourist trap).
Tourist hotels - one or two within five minutes of Temple Bar - may indeed present Irish dancing shows for tourists. Compare that schmaltzy kitsch with the myriad of genuine Irish traditional music sessions going on all over town every night, and you might find that you missed the real indigenous culture and simply sampled the tourist fare.
Yes, Phoenix Park is a fantastic oasis. But there is so much more to Dublin than the park, the Guinness Storehouse and Temple Bar.
I'd encourage the author to travel a bit more widely than five minutes walk from the river if he wants to experience a very real, very vivid cultural life that genuine Dubliners enjoy next time.
And what is the obsession with Shepherd's pie about, anyway? That's an English dish, rarely seen on Irish menus. Hardly typical of Dublin dining, which is as top-end as any, as a visit to Guibauld's, L'Guelton, Chapter One, Lockes, etc, would reveal.
I give this article 3/10. Next time, the lazy author should explore the town a bit better.
