Definitively Dublin

The Spire of Dublin, the world’s tallest sculpture, is worth risking a neck injury to view. The pin-like monument unveiled in 2003 rises 120 metres high over the city centre, and is loved and loathed in equal measure; poetic Dubliners (them again…) have dubbed it ‘the Stiletto in the Ghetto’ and ‘the Pin in the Bin’, a reference to the O’Connell Street area’s down-at-heel reputation.

Don't go home without

… pitching up for a pub ‘session’ on a Sunday morning: these are terrific drinking and singing marathons, with wall-to-wall Guinness, musicians, drums, spoons and enough heart-rending ballads about leaving the old country to bring a ton of tears to an American-Irishman’s eye. An excellent cure for a hangover – though a sure way to another one. Some ‘proper’ pubs include Auld Dubliner on Anglesea Street (+353 (0)1 677 0527); the Brazen Head on Bridge Street Lower (+353 (0)1 677 9549); and Davy Byrnes on Duke Street (+353 (0)1 677 5217), which appears in Ulysses.