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Temple Bar Music Centre, Curved St, T 01 670 9202. Tue-Sat 1030-0230. E13 . This huge place is really a music venue but offers club nights after each gig, which are free to those who’ve attended the live event. Tuesday is salsa night with dance lessons followed by a dedicated club night. For discounted admission, pick up a flyer from the foyer or from the tourist office. Lobo, Morrison Hotel, Ormond Quay, T 01 887 2400. Fri and Sat 2230-0300. E10 . A cool, beautifully designed place where you might need to book a table. Very chic people come here to chill out and listen to funky jazz sets on Fridays and chart music on Saturdays. Draft beer used to be served, but the pumps spoiled the clean lines of the bar, so now you’ll have to make do with cocktails and bottled beer. Spirit, 57 Middle Abbey St, T 01 877 9999, http://www.spiritdublin.com Thu-Sat 2200-0300. E25 . Formerly HQ, this place is now a vast, newly reconstructed, overcrowded entertainment complex, with assorted layers of bars, cinema screens, dance floors, a strip joint, a restaurant – yada, yada, yada – all named after different spiritual states. Temple Theatre, St George’s Church, Temple St, T 01 874 5088. Wed-Sat 2130-0300. E15. The nave of this church has been converted into a huge dance floor that jumps to a high-octane party vibe. There’s a quieter atmosphere in the crypt. Having gone through the artistic doldrums for a hundred years or so, with talent leaking out of the place as fast as the green card would allow, Dublin in the 21st century once more enjoys a thriving and increasingly international cultural life, with dedicated festivals supporting a vibrant year-round arts scene. Dublin’s renowned theatres offer both international and local productions, while the city’s cinemas show all the usual blockbusters plus a welcome sprinkling of arthouse films. Two classical orchestras, an opera company, plus small music groups and choirs all give regular concerts around the city, while innumerable traditional Irish bands perform in Dublin’s pubs. Add to this a brand new performance venue, the revival of traditional Irish dancing (once the preserve of ten-year-old girls with fierce braids and fiercer mothers) and the flowering of Irish humour on the stand-up comedy circuit, and you have a recipe for great entertainment in the city.
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