I went to Dublin for the first time last year to attend my brother and sister-in-laws wedding.
My wife and I took my two under 5's with us who where really excited about going on a ferry for the first time. We stayed in a town near Dublin called Dun Laoghaire (pronounced dun leary!)as it was a ferry port and close to the Royal Marine Hotel where they were holding the reception.
Dun Laoghaire was much like any typical english town (apart from it having a ferry port) except for the architecture which (being irish!)was typical of Ireland.
The wedding was a typical Catholic wedding and even had the Dublin county choir there, it was fantastic to be there as it was very different from any wedding I've ever attended.
I had a bit of a problem as my wife was a bridesmaid and this left me looking after the kids at the back of the church (helped by my other sister-in-law) and being small children they didn't want to keep still or quite. We came to the conclusion that we'd save the wedding and take the kids to the pub across the road, unfortunatly we then found out that children aren't very welcome in pubs in those parts and that we'd have to stand outside the church for the rest of the ceremony due to the fact that we could'nt keep them quite.
After this my wife ,the kids and myself spent the next few days trying to find something to do with the kids as they didn't really seem very welcome anywhere. We even asked the locals (with kids) if they could suggest anywhere and we did get told of a park with a swing and a slide in it but we would have had to walk a few mile to find it!
We did get told about the Dublin zoo which we then visited and found to be very good, it was obviously aimed towards children, was set out very well and had a lot of the classic (and some rare) inhabitents in it.The kids really enjoyed it and if it wasn't for that I think we might have headed home!
My wife and I did manage to get out on our own for the stag/hen night and found the nightlife to be very good in Dublin, the drinks prices were very reasonable and there are a lot of pubs and clubs to suit all tastes.
I would definatly reccommend Dublin as a beutiful place to visit and the locals are very friendly,polite (and always opening doors for you!)but I wouldn't reccommend going with small children not unless you are prepared to take a lot of toys with you to keep them amused!
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Mar 18th, 2001
(Mar 19th, 2001)
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