Night life in Dublin

There is a very rich night life in Dublin. There are no BIG clubs, but there are many small ones and people love to go out. The going out is split into two main categories:

Pubs:

Pub is a religious establishment in Ireland. Locals love it and if you are a tourist it is an absolute must. There are pubs that also have a dance floor, but most of them are simply watering holes with a bunch of seating and standing space and sometimes a patio (almost always roofed with heaters that are very helpful in cold weather).

There are several notable pubs that I would recommend. If you are in Temple Bar (the most popular party area in town) you absolutely should visit the Temple Bar pub (for the atmosphere) and the Porterhouse pub (for craft beers). Both pubs, just like many other pubs in Dublin, sometimes have live music. Other notable places are O’Neil’s, Whelans, Mulligans, The Stag’s Head, The Bleedin Horse, Grogans, Since E, Davy Byrnes and many many others. One highly recommended activity is the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, which is excellent!

You should go to a carvery pub for experience once. Carvery is not a name of the pub but essentially a buffet. Probably the best pub to go for that is O’Neil’s on Suffolk Street.

Dance Clubs:

There are many clubs in Dublin. The most popular usually tend to be packed and have sticky floors from the enormous amount of beer that is typically spilled on them. Most notable are Café en Seine, Howl at the Moon, The Baggot Inn, Coppers. Each club differs by the style of music and audience. For example, Coppers (full name is Copperface Jacks) is almost like an after-hours club with mostly younger audience (read late teens, early 20s) and tend to be the last place on people’s itinerarys in a night out. Therefore, the contingent tends to be way drunker than at the other places.

I highly recommend getting a recommendation from a local on what place to go. Alternatively you can drop me a line!

I should dedicate a special section here for after the club midnight snack. Realistically this is likely going to be at 3-4 in the morning on a good night. There are a few places that are dear to my heart, just because they are open late and the food is good. If you find yourself in Coppers, head over to the Harcourt Diner, which is just around the corner. You can get a decent kebab, some chips (French fries) or a pizza. Alternatively, and a much better alternative at that, is Zaytoon, which is also very close. Zaytoon is absolutely heavenly at 4 in the morning and, although some people say that they would never walk in there sober, I think the food is very good! There is also a Zaytoon in Temple Bar, right across from the Porterhouse.

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