Culture and heritage in Dublin

Samuel Beckett once quipped that Trinity contained the cream of Ireland – rich and thick! He was also one of the college’s most famous alumni, along with Swift, Wilde, Congreve and Goldsmith. Trinity Library’s Long Room library has been voted one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. A spectacular barrel-vaulted roof arches over 200,000 books, as well a rare copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and a 13th-century wooden harp, the model for the national emblem of Ireland. The exquisite Book of Kells, an illuminated religious manuscript that dates back to 800 AD, has been held here since 1654. The exhibition Turning Darkness into Light gives an insight into the craft of illumination, all the more impressive when it’s revealed that the work was done by young monks with the necessary 20/20 vision essential for such close work. Booking essential.

Trinity College

Housed in the finest 17th-century building in Ireland, IMMA has over 3,500 works by Irish and international artists. The IMMA Collection: A Decade is a snapshot of how the National Collection has developed over the past ten years and includes four installations by Irish-based Kevin Atherton, David Beattie, Rhona Byrne and Dennis McNulty, sponsored by the Hennessy Art Fund. British artist Julian Opie’s work also appear in the lovely gardens and, located in the old kitchens of the Royal Hospital, there’s a basement café for essential refuelling.

Irish Museum of Modern Art

You may not know much about Charles Stewart Parnell and the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, who were held at Kilmainham, but its stunning east wing panopticon, modelled on Pentonville Prison, will be familiar to anyone who’s seen 'The Italian Job' (or U2’s music video for 'A Celebration'). The hour-long tour is an insight into the history of the jail, through petty crimes, prison overcrowding, reformation, and political detention, with a fascinating museum containing moving letters and the memorabilia of inmates. On a drizzly wet day, tales of stone-breaking and the 14 executions of 1916 make it a thoroughly sobering experience. Booking essential.

kilmainham Gaol

The largest church in Ireland was built on the site of a former fifth-century church where St Patrick once reputedly baptised Celtic chieftains. In the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell showed his utter disdain for the Catholic church by stabling his horses here. Poet, satirist and writer, Jonathan Swift, once Dean of the current gothic cathedral, is buried here and there’s a permanent exhibition, including early editions of his works. Pause to consider that the land of the leprechaun produced a writer whose most famous book concerned a traveller who found himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people.

St Patrick's Cathedral

The 'Kingship and Sacrifice' exhibition at the NMI’s Archaeology branch centres on recently-found Iron Age bog bodies preserved by the natural peat in which they were buried. Some bodies, clearly disembowelled, prompted speculation about human sacrifice. Tracing Irish history from prehistoric times to the present day, the collection also features Celtic and Medieval art, along with exquisite Bronze Age gold jewellery discovered during turf cutting. Examining the events of Easter Week, 'Proclaiming a Republic: The 1916 Rising' is showing at the Decorative Arts & History collection at Collins Barracks. The Natural History collections can be found at Merrion Street.

National Museum of Ireland