National Gallery of Ireland

The National Gallery of Ireland is a gem that many visitors overlook in the rush between Trinity and the pubs, and it deserves an unhurried couple of hours. Opened in 1864 on Merrion Square West, it has grown into a series of linked buildings, from the original Victorian galleries to the bright modern Millennium Wing on Clare Street, and admission to the permanent collection is free. The European collection is far stronger than most people expect. Its star is Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ, a dramatic night scene of Judas's betrayal that hung unrecognised for decades in a Jesuit house in Dublin before it was identified in the early 1990s as a lost masterpiece; it remains on indefinite loan from the Jesuit community and draws people from around the world. Nearby are Vermeer's Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid, Velázquez's early Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus, a Titian, a Rembrandt landscape, Goya, Monet, Picasso and much more. The Irish collection is the finest anywhere, from eighteenth-century portraits and landscapes through the Celtic Revival to the expressive late works of Jack B. Yeats, brother of the poet, whose thickly painted scenes of Irish life fill their own space. Look out for Snámh na Life, his painting of a swimming race in the Liffey watched from the quays. The gallery has a café, free audio guides, a family audio tour and a good shop, and it stays open into the evening on Thursdays. Some special exhibitions charge admission.

The gallery's story includes one of Dublin's most charming legacies. George Bernard Shaw, who said he received much of his education wandering its rooms as a boy, left a third of his royalties to the gallery, which means that the long-running success of My Fair Lady, based on his play Pygmalion, helped pay for acquisitions; a statue of Shaw stands in the gallery. The building also holds the National Portrait Collection and a substantial collection of works on paper, including a group of Turner watercolours traditionally shown only in January, when the light is weakest, a lovely winter ritual for anyone visiting then.

Working the visit: enter from Clare Street through the Millennium Wing or from Merrion Square, pick up a map and decide whether to concentrate on the European masters or the Irish rooms. With an hour, see the Caravaggio, the Vermeer, the Velázquez and the Yeats room. With two, add the Irish galleries in sequence, which tell the story of the country through its art. The free audio guides are good, and the family audio tour turns the visit into a trail for children. In autumn 2026 public-sector industrial action closed the gallery on some days, so check its website before setting out. Opening hours start later on Sundays and Mondays and run late on Thursday evenings, which is a pleasant time to visit when the rooms are quiet.

Around it: Merrion Square is the finest of Dublin's Georgian squares, its brick terraces of coloured doors and fanlights surrounding a park where Oscar Wilde reclines in a colourful statue opposite his childhood home at No. 1. The National Museum and the National Library are two minutes away on Kildare Street, Government Buildings stands on Merrion Street, and St Stephen's Green and Grafton Street are five minutes west. Combine the gallery with a Georgian walk around Merrion and Fitzwilliam Squares, ending at one of the classic pubs on Baggot Street or Merrion Row. The gallery also cares for light-sensitive treasures that are shown only for limited periods, most famously Frederic William Burton's watercolour Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs, voted Ireland's favourite painting, so check what is on display if there is a particular work you hope to see. The National Portrait Collection, with faces from Irish history and culture, is a good companion to a day of museums.