From our guide to Ireland
Vincent and Sile (Sheila in Gaelic) have done amazing things here, turning their modest café and B&B into a luxurious restaurant with rooms. Their philosophy is simple and reassuring...
The gardens rolling down to the lake past some very special trees and the ruins of three earlier Temple Houses - medieval, Tudor, Jacobean - announce rich history. The looming bulk of the present hosue, built in 1864...
Dublin heaves with modern life, with pavement cafés and cosmopolitan buzz –- not surprising with hundreds of thousands of East Europeans now adding their vitality, and help, to Ireland's own. The economic boom after Ireland's entry into the euro-zone has settled down a bit (this book has over 70 places charging £70 or less for a double room with breakfast) but the extent to which the Irish 'hospitality' business is dependent on outsiders is astonishing. I was charmed by Latvians in Wicklow and by Poles in Dublin. Eighty per cent of hotel workers come from abroad.
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