HOTEL REVIEW

July 2022

REVIEWS

Living History

Ulster Tatler’s Chris Sherry spends a night at the Trinity City Hotel, Dublin.

Dublin is a city steeped in history. You only have to take a walk down any street or alleyway in the city centre to happen upon a historic building or monument. I stayed right in the centre recently in the Trinity City Hotel and found the area around the hotel fascinating.

The hotel is on Pearse Street, a five-minute walk from Grafton Street. Fans of the author James Joyce will be interested to know that the hotel is also close to Nassau Street, which is where, on 10th June 1904, Joyce first met Nora Barnacle, the woman with whom he was to spend the rest of his life. Also near the hotel is perhaps my favourite Dublin pub, Mulligans on Poolbeg Street. Reportedly, Joyce visited it several times. It even gets a mention in his short story collection, Dubliners, in the story Counterparts. It is a great place to sit over a pint of Guinness and, although one of Dublin’s oldest premises, it seems to have remained largely unchanged over the years.

As you would expect, the building housing the hotel also has a fascinating history. Over the years the site has been home to a coal merchants, a British army recruiting office and an ecclesiastical architecture and sculpture firm. Padraig Henry Pearse, the executed leader of the 1916 Rising, and one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, was born several doors away. Hence the street’s name which was, until 1923, known as Great Brunswick Street.

The hotel itself is a welcome refuge from the bustle of the city centre and has some great public spaces. The bar and restaurant are both really good places to while away an hour or two, so be sure to set aside some time to relax in the hotel. We had pre-dinner drinks in the Brunswick Bar followed by dinner in the Courtyard Restaurant. Quite often the food in city hotels is pretty mediocre, to say the least. This is definitely not the case with the Trinity City. Our meal was excellent in every respect. Weather permitting, the hotel also has an inviting internal courtyard, perfect for alfresco dining.

If you are travelling by car, the hotel has a valet parking service. We drove down and, conveniently, we handed over our keys at the front door. If you decide to travel down by train, Connolly Station is only a short walk away. Our room had its own balcony which was an unexpected bonus, especially on a sunny day. We were able to sit and watch the world go by several floors below. If your budget can stretch to it, I recommend that you book a deluxe room with a balcony.

The Trinity City Hotel is a great base from which to explore Dublin: a modern European city with a rich cultural life and more fashionable than ever these days. Recent TV series such as Normal People and Conversations With Friends have really put it on the map. However, as a proud Belfast man, I feel obliged to point out that large sections of Conversations With Friends were actually filmed in Belfast - just saying.

Fact file

Trinity City Hotel Pearse Street Dublin 2 www.trinitycityhotel.com