Dublin’s Rock Walk Struts Musical Legacy

The Dublin Tourist Board is making a special effort to recognize its legacy of world-famous contemporary musicians.

Sixteen plaques commemorating popular modern musicians were recently erected in downtown Dublin. A booklet guiding visitors to these sites, along a route known as Rock and Stroll, is available.

The first thing to do when you arrive in Dublin is get settled. Budget travelers have several options for centrally located, low-cost accommodations.

Kinlay House, owned by the Irish student travel service, is at 2-12 Lord Edward St., beside Christchurch Cathedral. All travelers are welcome. It offers accommodations for 160 people in one- to six-bedded rooms.

Cost, including a continental breakfast, linens and taxes, for a room with four to six people is $12.50 per person. A room for two is $19 and up per person. Single rooms start at $28.

Inlay House never closes. Services include laundry, kitchen, TV room and currency exchange.

The Dublin Youth Hostel, on Mountjoy Street, can be reached from the airport by taking bus 41-A to Dorset Street, then walking for about three minutes. Also, a bus is sent out to meet the ferry at the docks, providing the arrivals with free transportation to the hostel.

The blocklong building is a former monastery that can accommodate more than 400 visitors, and the chapel has been turned into a beautiful dining room with stained-glass windows. The confessional booth is now used for telephone calls.

The hostel has a travel service, kitchen, restaurant and money exchange. Nonmembers are welcome. Accommodations in small dormitory rooms cost $12 per person per night.

During holiday periods, a number of Ireland’s universities, such as Dublin’s famous 400-year-old Trinity College, open their doors to visitors. Many of the rooms (which are usually singles) are booked for meetings and conventions, but solo travelers can also be accommodated.

Checking with a local tourist information office may be the best bet for accommodations. I discovered that the Dublin Tourist Office had made arrangements to book visitors into single rooms at Trinity, in the historic heart of the city, for several dollars less than direct bookings. A single room was $32, breakfast included, with the discount.

Accommodation information and “Rock and Stroll” booklets are available at Dublin Tourist Information offices, which are located at the airport, at the ferry docks (Dun Laoghaire, St. Michael’s Wharf) and in the center of the city at 14 Upper O’Connell St.

All sites along the “Rock and Stroll” trail are within easy walking distance from Trinity College.

The stroll includes stops at the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street, where the Chieftains first got together 29 years ago; Merchant Arch, where a plaque commemorates Thin Lizzy; the Bad Ass Cafe in Crown Alley, where Sinead O’Connor once waitressed; Bewleys cafe on Grafton Street, where Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats would regularly meet, and Windmill Lane, the studio where U2 first recorded its music.

Other plaques are dedicated to: Paul Brady, Mary Black, Hot Press, The Furey Brothers & Davey Arthur, Hothouse Flowers, Christy Moore, Dave Fanning, The Dubliners, Moving Hearts and the Milestones.

Although the booklet costs $3.25, it also offers information on pubs, accommodations, shopping, popular restaurants and music.

For more information on discounts or on youth, student and budget travel arrangements, visit the Irish student travel service (called USIT) at Aston Quay, O’Connell Bridge, Dublin 2.

For additional information on travel, study and summer schools programs in Ireland, contact the Irish Tourist Board, 757 Third Ave., 19th Floor, New York 10017, (212) 418-0800.