A Guide to Dublin

Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland, is situated at the mouth of the River LIffey, near the middle of Ireland's East Coast. Dublin has one of the fastest growing populations in Europe.

The population of Dublin stands at just over half a million people in the city, with over a million and a half residing in the Greater Dublin area. The population is becoming increasingly multicultural with more people emigrating from outside Europe, including Australia, New Zealand, China, Russia and Brazil.

Since about 1995, Ireland and Dublin in particular has experienced significant economic growth; the cost of living has rocketed over this period of time but wages have dramatically increased. In fact, wages in Dublin are the fourth highest in the world, even ahead of London and New York City. However, Ireland is in the top twenty of most expensive cities in Europe.

Dublin has long had a tradition with the brewing industry, especially with the Guinness brewery. More recently, a wide variety of major multinationals have based their head quarters or have major offices in Dublin, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Amazon and PayPal. Banking and financial institutions are also prominent in Dublin, with Citibank and Commerzbank establishing major headquarters in Dublin. Manufacturing in Dublin is also prominent, with Hewlett Packard and Intel manufacturing plants on the outskirts of Dublin.

Dublin is connected to the rest of the country with the M50 providing access to other major cities in the vicinity. Dublin has a variety of bus companies, the largest of which being Bus Atha Cliath (Dublin Bus). Commuters in Dublin can also use the Suburban Rail and DART, Luas, and there are plans to build a Dublin Metro separate from existing traffic.