Leave Connolly Station by the Amiens Street exit and turn left on Amiens Street. Walk down this busy and unappealing street to Memorial Road, and, with the lawns of the Custom House on your right, continue down this very short road to Custom House Quay and the Liffey. With your back to the river look at the Custom House to the left. To your right is the Famine Memorial. This group of rather abstract bronze figures commemorates all those who died and were forced to leave Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845–48, when the Irish potato crop was destroyed by blight, depriving many people of their main, if not only, source of food. It is estimated that up to one million people starved to death. Many more died aboard the vessels that came to be known as ‘coffin ships’ on the way to America, where they hoped to begin a new life. Many of the luckier ones settled in the slums of the Dublin docklands, giving the area, and the city, a new character and bringing with them an abiding resentment of the British ruling class, who did too little, too late, to prevent the famine. Take a quick look at the grand Georgian front of the Custom House with its green copper dome crowned by an allegorical figure representing Commerce.

Walk east along Custom House Quay passing the Famine Memorial and cross the entrance to George’s Dock on the left-hand side. Immediately after passing the entrance of George’s Dock, take a lefthand turn and come face to face with the east front of a conspicuous and immaculately restored brick warehouse block. This is the chq building, formerly a wine and tobacco warehouse built in 1820 and for most of its life known simply as Stack A. In 1856 it was famously the venue for the Crimean War Banquet, held to celebrate the return of 3,000 Irish soldiers from the war in the Crimea between Britain (in alliance with Turkey and France) and Russia. In the early 21st century it was splendidly restored and converted into a smart shopping centre. Go in only if you want to add to your collection of expensive designer wear and yuppie accessories.

Walk on along the riverside and pause for a moment to admire one of the Liffey’s newer landmarks, the Sean O’Casey Bridge, which is in plain view straight ahead of you. Designed by architect Cyril O’Neill and named in honour of one of Dublin’s great dramatic and political radicals, the bridge, built in 2005, is a dramatic structure in its own right. With a span of almost 325ft (100m), its angular steel walkway is supported by two granite piers and splits into two sections, which can be raised through 90 degrees to allow vessels to pass, although this is a rare occurrence.

Do not cross over the bridge, but continue walking down the Liffey, where up ahead you should be able to see the three masts of a traditional sailing ship housing the Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship & Famine Museum. The barque Jeanie Johnston, of which this is a painstaking copy, was built in Quebec in 1847 and sold to the Tralee merchant Nicholas Donovan. She carried timber from Canada and America to Ireland, and emigrants from Ireland to America. Unlike many of the ships that carried people fleeing poverty and famine across the Atlantic, the Jeanie Johnston was not a ‘coffin ship’ – she carried 2,500 people on 16 voyages with not a single death, mainly due to the care taken by her owner, her captain and her ship’s doctor. Supplies provided for each passenger comprised 21 quarts of water, 2.5lb bread or biscuit, 1lb flour, 5lb oatmeal, 2lb rice, 2oz tea, 8oz sugar and 8oz molasses. These rations had to last for up to eight weeks. The on-board museum, with its life-size figures, gives you a realistic glimpse of the cramped and spartan life in the emigrant berths; fortunately no attempt is made to recreate the stench of a ship that lacked even rudimentary toilets and washing facilities. The replica ship was built during the 1990s and funded by the people of Tralee and County Kerry as a memorial to the victims and survivors of the famine. Since then, the Jeanie Johnston has sailed across the Atlantic and all over Europe. She is used as a sail training ship as well as a floating museum. 

Keep walking on to reach the east end of Custom House Quay, cross to the right-hand side of the road to cross a spectacular bridge. Opened in December 2009, Samuel Beckett Bridge is named for one of the towering literary figures of the 20th century. Like James Joyce, the Nobel laureate, author and playwright spent most of his life in library exile, but Beckett is still claimed by Ireland as one of its most celebrated sons. The cable-stayed bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava (who also designed the James Joyce Bridge further up the Liffey) is intended to resemble a harp lying on its side.

Cross City Quay, turn left then almost immediately right on Cardiff Lane and take the first left, Misery Hill, just before Bord Gais Energy Theatre, which leads to Grand Canal Square and a dazzling glass and steel construction that resembles a stranded starship. This is Dublin's newest and finest performing arts venue, a project that weathered the financial crisis to open its doors in 2010. The Grand Canal Theatre hosts major international ensemble, including Russia's Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Opera.

Walk down Grand Canal Quay, with Grand Canal Dock on your left, to McMahon Bridge, which crosses the dock to Ringsend Road. Until the building of the Grand Canal Dock, Ringsend was a small trading port and is remembered for a maritime mystery yarn. In 1695, the merchant ship Ouzel Galley set sail from here for Smyrna (now Izmir) in Turkey. Five years later - two years after she was declared lost - the Ouzel Galley limped home with a suspiciously rich cargo. Her crew claimed they had been captured by corsairs, but had managed to escape with their ship and a load of loot. Some suspected that instead of heading east, the skipper had turned pirate in the Caribbean. Neither he nor his crew benefited in the long run - the booty was confiscated to repay the ship's owners and the sailors, returning home after a long absence, discovered that many of their wives had remarried, believing themselves to be widows.