Temple Bar

Every city has a neighborhood that tourists flock to and locals roll their eyes at, and Temple Bar is Dublin's version — though the eye-rolling is somewhat unfair. This cobblestoned network of narrow streets between the Liffey and Dame Street was never supposed to survive at all. In the 1980s, Ireland's national bus company, CIE, bought up most of the buildings with plans to demolish the entire area and build a bus depot. While the buildings sat empty waiting for the wrecking ball, artists, musicians, and cheap-rent seekers moved in and accidentally created a bohemian quarter.

The bus depot never happened. Instead, in 1991, the government established Temple Bar Properties to regenerate the area as Dublin's official "cultural quarter." The Irish Film Institute, Project Arts Centre, Gallery of Photography, and the Ark children's cultural centre all set up shop. For a while it was genuinely edgy. Then the stag parties found it.

The name has nothing to do with bars or temples. Sir William Temple, provost of Trinity College, built a house here in the 1600s, and "bar" likely referred to a riverside walkway. The streets mirror London's Temple area — there's an Essex Street and a Fleet Street here too, in the same relative positions.

But here's the thing Temple Bar haters won't tell you: Fishamble Street, on the western edge, is where Handel's Messiah received its world premiere on April 13, 1742. Ladies were asked to come without hooped skirts to fit more people into the hall. There's an annual performance at the same spot every year. Beneath the cobblestones and pint glasses, this neighborhood has layers of history that no amount of tourist tat can erase.