coll. - Dublin and Southeastern Ireland

Editors: Robert I.C. Fisher, Salwa Jabado

Editorial Contributors: Paul Clements, Andrew Collins, Alannah Hopkin, Anto Howard

Copyright 2011 by Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House, Inc.

Fodor's is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House, Inc. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York.

No maps, illustrations, or other portions of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

1st Edition

ISBN 978-0-307-92828-3

Excerpted from Fodor's Ireland (ISBN 978-1-4000-0490-4)

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Dublin and Southeastern Ireland cover, Gail Johnson/Shutterstock. Dublin and Southeastern Ireland Contents, Dublin Tourism. Experience Dublin and Southeastern Ireland, infomatique/Flickr. Whats New, Jasper from Union City/wikipedia.org. When to Go, Pilgab/wikipedia.org.Whats Where, 2010- Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Planner, Kathleen Noehren, Fodors.com member. Ireland Today, Brendan Duffy/Dublin Tourism. Top Attractions, Michal Rozanski/iStockphoto. Top Experiences, Dublin Tourism. Quintessential Ireland, carolel, Fodors.com member. Great Outdoors, Dermot McBrierty/shutterstoc. Ancestor-Hunting, Peter Forde, Fodors.com member. Irish Family Names, David Mason/iStockphoto. Dublin, upthebanner/Shutterstock. Introducing Dublin, dahon/Flickr. Dublin Planner, Razvan Stroie/Shutterstock. Getting Around Dublin, Amanda Bullock. Exploring Dublin, Dublin Tourism. Where to Eat in Dublin, Ludo Plichon. Where to Stay in Dublin, Marriott International, Inc. Nightlife and the Arts in Dublin, ctoverdrive/Flickr. Sports and the Outdoors in Dublin, Eoghan McNally/shutterstock. Shopping in Dublin, bjaglin/Flickr. Side Trips: North County Dublin, Amanda Bullock. Dublin in Depth, Nic McPhee/wikipedia.org. Dublin Environs, fineartfotography/Shutterstock. ntroducing Dublin Environs, Chris Hill/Tourism Ireland. Dublin Environs Planner, UnaPhoto/Shutterstock. Getting Around Dublin Environs, Amanda Bullock. The Boyne Valley, James Harries/wikipedia.org County Wicklow, Warrenfish/wikipedia.org. County Kildare to West Wicklow, infomatique/Flickr. Dublin Environs in Depth, Russborough. The Midlands, NL Buttonfreak/wikipedia.org. Introducing the Midlands, JohnArmagh/wikipedia.org. The Midlands Planner, Markus Niebanck, Fodors.com member. Getting Around the Midlands, Peter Gavigan/wikipedia.org. The Eastern Midlands, Holger Leue/Tourism Ireland. The Western Midlands, Andrea Seemann/Shutterstock. The Midlands In Depth, Charles Bishop/wikipedia.org. The Southeast, Panaspics/Shutterstock. Introducing the Southeast, Alan O Connor/Tourism Ireland. The Southeast Planner, Panaspics/Shutterstock. Getting Around the Southeast, Patryk Kosmider/Shutterstock. Kilkenny City, Roger Kinkead/Tourism Ireland. Southeast Inlands, Sarah777/wikipedia.org. Wexford Town, Chris Hill/Tourism Ireland. Waterford and the Southeast Coast, Cameron Swinton/Shutterstock. In and Around Tipperary, Marc C. Johnson/Shutterstock. The Southeast In Depth, Jeff Meade/wikipedia.org. Travel Smart, beamillion/Flickr. Getting Here and Around, Hochgeladen von Tormod/wikipedia.org. Essentials, Laurent Walter.

From Boom to... ?

After a decade of riding the back of the explosive Celtic Tiger economic boom, the party (some called it an orgy) is officially over. Not so long ago, a two-bedroom terrace house in Dublin was selling for $600,000 and the capital city was buying more BMWs than Bavaria. By 2008, the hungover country was waking up as if from a drunken dream from an era where house-selling was the Ponzi scheme of choice and a consumerist ethos of spend, spend, spend had replaced the discredited church as the national religion. The ongoing negative fallout is familiar the world over: property prices have nearly halved, unemployment has trebled, and the recession has replaced the boom as the most boring thing to bring up in the midst of a good pub conservation. But even though it all ended in tears, the decade-long period of rapid growth and expansion changed the face of timeless Ireland forever. The paw print of the Tiger is everywhere: brash modern buildings; state-of-the-art highways; well-educated, confident (some might say cocky) young people; a slew of new immigrants from all corners of the globe; and the highest mobile phone usage in Europethe Ireland of idyllic postcard simplicity (if it ever existed) is truly gone forever, and with it, all those images of red-haired colleens leading turf-laden donkeys to thatched cottages.

Happily, beneath all the innovations, credit card bills, and high-speed text messaging, that ageless, magical, Irish thing endures. Irelands landscape is still ancient, empty, and breathtakingly beautiful. History, drama, and passion ooze out of every ruined castle wall and old Irish poem. Like the Janus stones and sheela-na-gigs of its pre-Christian past, the real Ireland is two-faced, embracing the past while focusing on the future. In fact there is an undercurrent of opinion in the country that the end of the Tiger might, in the long term, help to save a lot of what is best about Ireland. Greed is no longer good, and there is a movement back towards some of the simpler things in life. There has been an explosion in vegetable gardens, with community allotments springing up on abandoned development sites. The curse of hastily built, ugly holiday bungalows blighting Irelands most pristine natural wilderness sites has been banished and Dublins fragile cityscape wont be assaulted by yet another block of Lego-like, overpriced apartments.