Dublin & Cobh: My Emerald Isle Love That Feels Like Home

Every single time our Royal Caribbean ship sails into Dublin Port or down in Cobh for Cork, I feel an instant warmth that wraps around me like a wool sweater fresh from the Aran Islands — Ireland is the port where cruisers consistently report the friendliest people on the planet (4.9–5.0 average 2023–2025). There's something about the Irish that makes you feel like you've come home, even if it's your first visit.

In Dublin my perfect day starts early with a 10-minute taxi to Trinity College, Ireland's oldest university, founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. Walking through those cobbled courtyards where Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, and Jonathan Swift once studied, I'm filled with a sense of literary pilgrimage. The Old Library's Long Room is nothing short of cathedral-like — this magnificent 65-meter-long (213 feet) gallery lined with marble busts and dark oak shelves houses over 200,000 of Ireland's oldest books, part of Trinity's collection of 6 million+ volumes. But the true treasure, the one that makes my breath catch every time, is the Book of Kells.

This illuminated manuscript, created around 800 AD by Celtic monks on the Scottish island of Iona, is a UNESCO Memory of the World treasure and genuinely one of humanity's greatest artistic achievements. When Viking raids threatened Iona in 806, the monks fled to the Abbey of Kells in Ireland, carrying this precious 680-page gospel with them. The 11th-century Annals of Ulster called it "the most precious object in the Western world," and standing before its display case, gazing at pages alive with mythical creatures, intricate Celtic knots, and colors that shouldn't have survived 1,200+ years, I understand why. The artistry is so breathtaking, so impossibly detailed, that you can spend an hour studying a single page and still discover new wonders.

After Trinity I wander across the Liffey to Temple Bar, Dublin's cultural heart where cobbled streets from the 1800s wind between historic pubs that have been pouring pints since before my great-grandparents were born. I slip into the Oliver St. John Gogarty for live trad music and a proper pint of Guinness at 10 a.m. (yes, when in Ireland!). Then it's on to the Guinness Storehouse, where Arthur Guinness's vision from 1759 has become a brewing empire that today accounts for a quarter of all beer consumed in Ireland. The self-guided tour through seven floors of brewing history culminates in the panoramic Gravity Bar at the top, and I promise you — sipping your complimentary pint while gazing out over Dublin's rooftops and spires, the city spread before you like a living map — is genuinely one of cruising's great moments.

Down in Cobh (pronounced "cove"), when we dock there for Cork city or Blarney/Kinsale trips, the colorful houses stacked up the hillside look like a watercolor painting come to life. The Titanic Experience museum is deeply moving — Cobh was her last port of call, and standing where those passengers took their final steps on Irish soil brings tears to my eyes every time. Kissing the Blarney Stone is a must-do once-in-a-lifetime moment, and a day trip to Cork's English Market for traditional drisheen (blood sausage) and blaas (soft bread rolls) is pure culinary joy.

The Irish welcome is legendary — strangers become friends in the time it takes to pour a pint, live music spills out of every pub doorway like an invitation, and the green countryside smells like rain and magic and home. Dublin and Cobh aren't just ports to visit; they're places that wrap you in warmth and send you back to your ship with stories you'll tell for years and a piece of Ireland tucked into your heart.