Those with an enthusiasm for visiting historic houses and gardens will be interested in a list compiled by the Revenue Commissioners. The document lists properties which gain tax relief on money spent on repairs, restoration and maintenance. In return, such properties/gardens must open to the public for a limited number of days each year. The opening hours tend to be eccentric; hence, the need for a detailed listing! For full details, please consult www.revenue.ie/
A more user-friendly website which covers many (but not all) historic houses with restricted opening hours is www.ihh.ie, the website of the Irish Historic Houses Association. Very full details, including opening hours, are provided for all those houses affiliated to the IHHA and you can search by county to identify historic houses within geographic areas of interest.
Open House Dublin is an annual weekend festival in early October featuring up to 100 noteworthy buildings, from the obvious to the overlooked. Representing a diversity of building types and uses, OHD offers visitors the chance to explore several buildings within a type or to spend the weekend moving around the city, taking in a host of attractions. Each venue offers a unique insight into Dublin’s architectural story. All OHD tours are free. See http://openhousedublin.com/ for full details.
“Bridges of Dublin” is a Dublin City Council project whereby a comprehensive digital archive of information has been developed about the bridges spanning the Liffey in Dublin county. www.bridgesofdublin.ie is a wonderful-looking website with a host of historical information, splendid photographs and neat features such as a set of photos showing the bridges and the city as they were in the past and how they are in the summer of 2013 (you click on the images and they fade from old to new – click on “Historical Dublin” and select the “Then and Now” option).
The Dublin Event Guide is a weekly e-mail newsletter which lists free cultural events in Dublin City and in the Greater Dublin area. Gigs, festivals, talks, lectures, and exhibitions are included. Written in blog-style by Joerg Steegmueller, the Event Guide is free and has more than 20,000 readers. You can subscribe free of charge to the weekly email by signing up at www.dublineventguide.com.