Craic is the Irish word for fun; it’s one you’ll hear often in the Republic of Ireland. The country is undergoing a renaissance, and gay visitors are delighting in Ireland’s newfound openness and internationality.
With overseas workers, students, and tourists streaming into the country, Ireland, and Dublin especially, has never been more cosmopolitan. Gay bars, clubs, and special events are a celebrated thread in the social fabric of a country known for literary characters as colourful as the authors who created them.
Ireland, a country of four million people, has produced no less than four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and though gifted writers William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and (Northern Irish) Seamus Heaney have their fans, it is undoubtedly Oscar Wilde who best embodies the cleverness, wit, and charm of the Irish people. Monuments honour him around the country.
Of course, Oscar is also a perfect personification of gay Ireland; Wilde's wit is abundantly matched and appreciated by his countrymen whose love dare not speak its name. The Irish are the kindest, most considerate people you will ever meet, and the gay scene is far more welcoming than those better known in Europe's biggest cities. If you time your visit for northern spring, you will be able to attend the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, the only gay theatre festival in the world. This is but one of several homo events taking place throughout the year, including a too-rare lesbian arts festival called aLAF.
For a special place to sleep off a hard night's partying in Dublin, book a room at Number 31. Once the private home of modernist architect Sam Stevenson, Number 31, built in the 1960s in a timeless style, is now a home to guests who like the excellent accommodation and full Irish breakfasts for which this establishment is renowned.
Galway, on the west coast, is a small city with its own history of literary inspiration, conveniently located between two impressive natural attractions. To the south is The Burren and The Cliffs of Moher, appealing in barren bleakness, and to the north are the alpine/Mediterranean landscapes of less bleak Connemara. Healy Tours can take you to both these place. Galway is also home Ireland's slickest hotel – the g, always lower case – a gay fantasy where pink and purple share the spotlight with millions of Swarovski crystals embedded in the check-in desk, bar, and tables around the hotel.
It's never been easier or faster to fly to Ireland thanks to Etihad Airways' new services from Sydney to Dublin via Abu Dhabi, capital of the very rich United Arab Emirates. Who wants to deal with hours in the queues at Immigration and Baggage Claim in London only to face more queues to check in for the connecting flight to Dublin? Make tracks to Ireland on your next European jaunt.
by ROBERT LA BUA
Ayes fast facts
www.etihadairways.com
www.discoverireland.com
www.alafireland.com
www.gaytheatre.ie
www.number31.ie
www.theghotel.ie
www.healytours.ie
