This eternally popular restaurant has a simple formula: great crispy pizzas with imaginative toppings such as spicy lamb and tzatziki, fresh home-made pastas or salads like broccoli, feta and chickpea that you'll dream about for days. All at prices that won't break the bank in a buzzing atmosphere. What more could you want, hey?

Roly's is an institution with Dublin's business fraternity (the Daily Mail is based beside it). It's always packed and serves up reliably good nosh. The menu is confidently traditional but most people come for the hobnobbing.

Many foodies consider this the best restaurant in town, and the recent acquisition of a second Michelin star points that way. Heaven-made combinations of the best local, seasonal produce - wild salmon, Dublin Bay prawns, veal and Barbary duck - are matched with inventive sauces and accompaniments and presented like works of art. Attentive but friendly staff make for a fine dining experience.

The stronghold of British power for 700 years is principally an 18th-century creation that is more hotch-potch palace than turreted castle. Only the Record Tower survives from the original Anglo-Norman fortress built in the 13th century on Viking foundations. The most fascinating part of the castle is underground - a chunk of the old city walls and moat.

Once the official residence of the British Viceroys in Ireland and now used by the Irish Government, access is by tour only. Sights include drawing rooms with their beautiful plasterwork, once used as bedrooms by visitors to the castle. The castle gardens end in a high wall said to have been built for Queen Victoria's visit to block the sight of the Stephen St slums.

The Figure of Justice that faces the castle's Upper Yard from the Cork Hill entrance has a controversial history. The statue was seen as a snub by many Dubliners, who felt Justice was symbolically turning her back on the city.

If that wasn't enough, when it rained, the scales would fill with water and tilt over, rather than remaining perfectly balanced. Eventually a hole was drilled in the bottom of each pan, letting the water drain out and restoring balance, of sorts.

More study centre than museum, casual Joyceans may be disappointed by the small cache of Joyce-related items in this beautifully restored Georgian home. But the centre has more than just texts and papers for Joycean scholars; there's a regular programme of events, films and lectures, walking tours of Joyce's haunts, photographs, relics and fascinating facts.

Although the Joyces did live in the area for a time, the link with the house is a literary one. It was the residence of a certain 'confirmed bachelor' called Denis Maginni, who taught dance in the front room early in the 20th century. Hardly remarkable, except for the fact that it left quite an impression on Joyce, who featured it several times in Ulysses.

In CS Andrews' Dublin Made Me, Maginni is described as 'egregious and ludicrous. Every afternoon he strolled up O'Connell St in silk hat, morning coat, lavender waistcoat, striped trousers, silver-topped malacca cane and gold watch-chain.' After Maginni's departure the house fell into disrepair. In 1982 it was taken over by Senator David Norris, a charismatic Joycean scholar and gay-rights activist, who restored the building and converted it into a centre for the study of Joyce and his books.

Ireland's premier university is both a tranquil retreat from the bustle of the city and the home of Dublin's biggest attraction, the Book of Kells. Established by staunchly Protestant Elizabeth I in 1592 in an effort to stop 'popery', the university's ancient ivy-covered walls crawl with history and a sense of occasion.

Trinity College was resolutely Protestant until 1793, when Catholics were theoretically allowed in (although the Catholic Church banned its faithful from entering the infidel halls until 1970), and determinedly masculine until 1903, when women were first admitted.

George Salmon, provost from 1886 to 1904, famously carried out his threat to allow women into the college 'only over his dead body', promptly dropping dead the moment the bluestockings walked through the door.

Apart from these early suffragettes, Trinity College has also played host to some top-drawer scholars including Edmund Burke, Wolfe Tone, Douglas Hyde, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde.

Walking tours will take you past statues of famous alumni-poets, iconic architectural features, majestic campaniles, and a few priceless bits and bobs by huge-name artists. And if all of that's not enough, there's still the Book of Kells that's ever-ready to impress.

A stunning Caravaggio and a whole room full of Ireland's pre-eminent artist, Jack B Yeats, are just a couple of stand-out highlights from this fine collection, amassed by the state since 1854. Its original collection has grown, mainly through bequests, to around 12,500 artworks, including oils, watercolours, drawings, paints and sculptures.

One of the museum's major benefactors was George Bernard Shaw, and the Shaw Room in the Dargan Wing is lined with full-length portraits and spectacular Waterford-crystal chandeliers.

Upstairs, the highlight is undoubtedly Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ, which lay undiscovered for over 60 years in a Jesuit house in Leeson St until it was found accidentally by the museum's curator in 1992.

Like a Disneyland for beer lovers, the Guinness Storehouse is an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza combining sophisticated exhibits with more than a pintful of marketing hype. The best part of the Storehouse tour is the rooftop Gravity Bar, where you can kick back with a pint of the black stuff.

Housed in an old grain storehouse, it's an impressive enterprise that milks the worldwide fame of Guinness for all it's worth. More multimedia installation than provincial beer museum, the Storehouse uses high-tech audio and visual displays to tell the Guinness story - and what a story it is.

Founded by Arthur Guinness in 1759, St James' Gate brews an astonishing 450 million litres of Guinness per year, which just manages to keep ahead of the 4 million pints per day consumed in Ireland alone.

Back in the 1930s St James' Gate and Guinness was the largest employer in the city. Its 5000-plus employees were paid well above the minimum wage, while receiving the extra perks of subsidised housing, health benefits, pension plans, longer holidays and life insurance.

While lounging in the midst of Irish conversation at a local pub, you might find yourself taking part in speculation on what constitutes the perfect pint. Arm yourself beforehand with the following favoured theories: the pint must be poured in Ireland, as close as possible to the St James's Gate brewery; it must be poured by an expert bartender who has mastered the technique for pulling the brew; and, after half the Guinness has been consumed, there must be a residue of thick white foam in rings on the inside of the glass.

A fantastic old pub adorned with stained glass and mirrors, it's famous for its long-running comedy nights, and live jazz and blues sessions on Tuesday. Ardal O'Hanlon, who played Dougal in Father Ted, started his career here doing stand-up comedy, as did TV comics Dara O'Briain and Des Bishop.

A good gig here can be quite magical. The crowd gathers round the elevated central stage and more peer down from the circular balcony - everyone mouthing the words to their favourite songs and ballads. Whelan's has an interesting parade of fine local and international singer-songwriters - well worth a look.

Reputed to be Dublin's oldest pub, the Brazen Head was founded in 1198, but the present building is a young thing, dating from only 1668. It's popular with foreign students, tourists and some grizzly locals - Robert Emmet was a regular, while in Ulysses, James Joyce reckoned 'you get a decent enough do in the Brazen Head'.