Traditions and customs in Dublin

1. The pub as social institution

Conversation and music rather than drinking alone; rounds are bought in turn.

2. Traditional music sessions

Informal seisiúns in back rooms, where players gather and anyone competent may join.

• Best time: Evenings, and better outside the Temple Bar strip

3. St Patrick's Day

A five-day festival in March, and considerably bigger abroad than it once was here.

• Best time: 17 March

4. Literary Dublin

Joyce, Beckett, Wilde and Yeats, with Bloomsday re-enacted every 16 June.

• Best time: 16 June

5. Hurling and Gaelic football

Amateur sports played at an extraordinary level, at Croke Park.