Dublin

Vikings founded Dublin around 841, naming it after Dubh Linn, the 'black pool' where the Poddle stream met the river Liffey. After the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169, the city became the centre of English rule in Ireland. In the eighteenth century it was one of the largest cities in Europe, and its elegant Georgian squares date from this time. The Great Famine of the 1840s devastated Ireland and drove millions to emigrate. On Easter Monday 1916, rebels seized the General Post Office and proclaimed an Irish Republic; the Rising was crushed, but it led to the War of Independence and, in 1922, the Irish Free State. Dublin has since become a European tech hub while keeping its literary soul.

Dubliners love a good story, and conversation is the city's favourite sport. The pub is a community living room, where you can find spontaneous sessions of fiddle, tin whistle and bodhrán. The city has produced four Nobel Prize winners in literature, including Yeats, Shaw and Beckett, and celebrates James Joyce every 16 June on Bloomsday. Try a pint of Guinness, brewed here since 1759, with Irish stew or a full Irish breakfast. Gaelic football and hurling draw passionate crowds at Croke Park.