From the south side of Wellington Quay, opposite Grattan Bridge, walk eastward to the Clarence Hotel, which faces the Liffey, at 6–8 Wellington Quay. Built in 1852, the Clarence was given a facelift in the 1930s but grew shabbier over the next four decades. By the 1970s it was looking decidedly down at heel, but its bar had become popular with the young guns of the nascent bohemian Temple Bar scene – among them a group of musicians who would go on to mega-star status. They were Bono and The Edge, and U2, the band that they formed with Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, became the biggest musical phenomenon ever to come out of Dublin. By 1992, with a portfolio of hugely successful hits, Bono and The Edge were wealthy enough to buy their old haunt and convert it into a glamorous boutique hotel that has become the favoured Dublin address for visiting celebs. The band recorded Beautiful Day here for the BBC’s Top of the Pops in September 2000. 

Continue along Wellington Quay to No. 42, on your right next to Ha’penny Bridge. The Ha’penny Bridge Inn, at 42 Wellington Quay, was a favourite watering-hole for the members of Thin Lizzy in the early years of their career, and an original photo of Phil Lynott still has a place of honour on its crowded walls. Thin Lizzy exploded onto the world stage in 1973 with a sound totally unlike anything that had ever come out of Ireland – a country that until then had been pretty much associated with the old-style folk music and ‘rebel songs’ of bands like The Dubliners or The Clancy Brothers. With his afro hair and tight black leathers, Lynott was Ireland’s first classic rock cowboy. His mixed ancestry – his African-Brazilian father left his Irish mother soon after Phil was born in 1949 – gave him an even greater exotic appeal. Thin Lizzy’s first big hit, Whiskey in the Jar (1973) took an old Irish folk ballad and turned it into a rock anthem, while the swaggering lyrics of The Boys are Back in Town became their greatest hit. Sadly, Phil Lynott did not handle success well. Drug and alcohol abuse ruined his health and destroyed his creative abilities, and he died young, in 1986. For a generation of fans, though, Thin Lizzy’s music lives on.

Turn right down Fownes Street Lower, then left on to Temple Bar. Take the next right into Crown Alley. The Bad Ass Café, at 9–11 Crown Alley, opened in 1983 and quickly became one of the hubs of the Temple Bar scene. Among the service staff in its early years was a young woman named Sinéad O’Connor, then working her way through college at Dublin’s School of Music while songwriting and performing with a new Dublin band, Ton Ton Macoute. Born in 1966, the shaven-headed warbler was destined to become a world star, gaining a reputation as an outspoken critic of targets ranging from Pope John Paul II to American foreign policy, and even fellow Dublin musicians U2 – whose music she denounced as ‘bombastic’ – while defending the aims of the Irish Republican Army. In 2003 she retired from the music business and was ordained into the Tridentine Church, a small religious movement and taking the name Bernadette to signal a change of direction in her life, before making a comeback some years later. She’s not the Bad Ass’s only rock connection – U2 and Bruce Springsteen also dropped in to sample the Bad Ass's once-legendary burgers. Sadly the Bad Ass became a victim of the global recession and closed its doors in 2011. However, now under new management and having undergone a revitalising renovation, this iconic music venue is fast becoming the great place it once was.

Continue up Crown Alley, turn left on to Cope Street and then right on to Anglesea Street. Continue to the junction of Dame Street and College Green. Cross Dame Street, turn right into Church Lane, which leads into Suffolk Street, then, at the corner of Suffolk Street and Grafton Street, turn right down Grafton Street to No. 78–79, Bewley’s Oriental Café. It’s a little difficult to picture Dublin’s punk legends sitting over a cup of tea in these genteel, old-fashioned surroundings. Bewley’s has been at this address since the mid-19th century, supplying self-service tea, coffee, scones and sandwiches. But Bewley’s is where Bob Geldof penned Rat Trap for the Boom Town Rats – the first ever single from an Irish rock band to go to number one in the British charts. The Rats disbanded in 1986 after a massive 10-year career, and Geldof is now better known as a campaigner.

Back out on Grafton Street, turn right and continue down the street to Captain Americas, at No. 44. Soft-rock star Chris de Burgh, best known for his hit single Lady in Red, began his singing career at Captain Americas while studying at nearby Trinity College in the early 1970s. Captain Americas first opened in 1971, and has hardly changed since then. Born in Argentina, Chris de Burgh is apparently very popular there – perhaps even more so than in Dublin.

At the end of this street, turn left on Clarendon Row, then left on King Street South. Midway along this street on the left is the Gaiety Theatre, a grand building with a decorative Venetian-style brick façade. Known as the ‘Grand Old Lady of South King Street’, the Gaiety was built by two enterprising brothers, John and Michael Gunn, who commissioned C. J. Phipps to design a theatre in the style of a grand European opera house. It was erected in record time – just over six months from start to finish – and opened on 27 November 1871 with a performance of Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer. The Gaiety has been a venue for some of the greatest stars of opera, ballet and theatre – Anna Pavlova, Joan Sutherland and Peter O’Toole among them – as well as singers such as Sinéad O’Connor and Dublin’s best-known outspoken radical singer-songwriter, Christy Moore. 

Continue past the Gaiety Theatre along King Street South to the northwest corner of St Stephen’s Green. Stroll through the park to the Merrion Square gateway. Cross St Stephen’s Green East to Merrion Row, then walk on to O’Donoghues at 15 Merrion Row. This folksy pub, with folk-music sessions every night, is a place of pilgrimage for Irish traditional music fans. This was where the legendary folk band The Dubliners was formed in 1962. They went on to become pioneers of the Irish traditional music revival that eventually spread far beyond Dublin. To return to the city centre walk back to St Stephen’s Green North, cross over and walk north up Kildare Street to reach Nassau Street. Turn left, then right at Grafton Street and go ahead to Westmoreland Street and the River Liffey in the centre of town.