Order a pint at Mulligan's on Poolbeg Street, there since 1854, mentioned in James Joyce's Counterparts

Tour Rascals Brewing Company in Inchicore, an independent craft brewery founded in 2014, minutes from Kilmainham Gaol

Book a table at Chapter One on Parnell Square, a two-Michelin-star restaurant helmed by chef Mickael Viljanen

Pick up ingredients at George's Street Arcade to cook your own version back at the van

Dublin's food runs from one extreme to the other inside a couple of square miles. Mulligan's has been on Poolbeg Street since 1854, on a licence going back to 1782 and Joyce put it into Counterparts; you go there for the stout, not for innovation. Chapter One on Parnell Square holds two Michelin stars under Mickael Viljanen and is as serious as Irish cooking gets. Rascals in Inchicore is the third thing — an independent brewery founded in 2014, minutes from Kilmainham Gaol. And the cheapest way to eat well is to buy at George's Street Arcade and cook it at the van.

Mulligan's to Chapter One: Dublin's Old and New Kitchens

North of the Liffey

Dublin

Two nights west of the city for the distilleries, the markets and the Guinness Storehouse, then one on the coast at Portrane for the old pubs and the new kitchens.

Dublin on a Plate: Markets, Distilleries and the Old Pubs

Start at the Martello Tower in Sandycove, where Ulysses opens with Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan — now the James Joyce Museum, holding his guitar, cigar case and death mask

At Sweny's Pharmacy on Lincoln Place, buy a bar of the lemon soap Bloom walks out with in Lotus Eaters — it is a volunteer bookshop now, and they read Ulysses aloud in it

At Davy Byrne's on Duke Street, order Bloom's lunch from Lestrygonians — a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy, still on the menu

At Glasnevin, find the O'Connell Tower inside the Finglas Road gate, where Bloom attends Paddy Dignam's funeral in Hades — Collins, de Valera and Joyce's own father are buried here

Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin on 16 June 1904 across 18 episodes. The physical route — from the Martello Tower in Sandycove to the National Library, Davy Byrne's pub, Sweny's Pharmacy and Glasnevin Cemetery — can be walked in a full day. Most of the buildings Bloom passes still stand — though not 7 Eccles Street, his own house, which was demolished; its front door is on show at the James Joyce Centre.

Joyce's Dublin: The Bloomsday Walk

In Merrion Square Park, look closely at the Wilde statue — he reclines on a Wicklow quartz boulder, torso of green nephrite jade and pink thulite, legs of Norwegian blue pearl granite, shoes of black Indian charnockite

Walk to 21 Westland Row — a ten-minute walk from Merrion Square — where a plaque marks the house where Wilde was actually born on 16 October 1854; the building is now part of Trinity College Dublin's Oscar Wilde Centre

At Marsh's Library on St Patrick's Close, look into the three wire reading cages, in use since the 1770s to stop readers walking off with the books

Go inside St Patrick's Cathedral and find Swift's grave slab and the Latin epitaph he wrote for himself — W. B. Yeats put it into English and called it the greatest epitaph in history

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854 and grew up at 1 Merrion Square — the square's park now holds his reclining statue, built out of coloured stones from three continents. Two streets away, Marsh's Library has stood since 1707 as Ireland's oldest public library, with three wire reading cages in use since the 1770s to stop readers pocketing the books; Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's next door, was a reader here in its early years.

Oscar Wilde, Marsh's Library and Dublin's Literary Monuments

Walk among Rowan Gillespie's seven bronzes and find the dog at the back of the group, as gaunt as the people it follows, all of them facing the river

Find out about the Perseverance, one of the first famine ships out of Dublin in 1846 — her captain was 74 and left an office job to sail her

Board the Jeanie Johnston — the original made sixteen crossings between 1848 and 1855 with some 2,500 emigrants and never lost a passenger, which was not the norm

From the Jeanie Johnston's deck, look back at the quay from roughly the height an emigrant would have seen it

On Custom House Quay beside the Liffey, seven bronze figures by sculptor Rowan Gillespie trudge toward the water — emaciated men, women, and a starving dog. Unveiled in 1997, they stand on the departure point of the Perseverance, one of the first famine ships to leave Dublin in 1846, captained by a 74-year-old man who quit his office job to make the crossing. All his passengers arrived in America safely. Moored a few steps away is the Jeanie Johnston, a replica of a famine-era ship that made 16 transatlantic crossings between 1847 and 1855 without losing a single passenger.

The Famine Memorial and the Jeanie Johnston

In the Book of Kells exhibition, find the page on show — at least three monks' hands have been identified in the manuscript, and it took the skins of about 185 calves

Stand at the end of the 65-metre Long Room under its barrel vault, its shelves emptied for the Old Library Redevelopment Project apart from the first four bays

Find the Brian Boru Harp, made around 1400 and the model for the harp on Irish coins, passports and the presidential seal

Find Jonathan Swift among the marble busts along the Long Room — he graduated from here in 1686 by special grace, having failed to meet the standard

The Long Room at Trinity College Dublin is 65 metres long under its barrel vault, lined with marble busts and, until recently, 200,000 of the library's oldest books — they have been taken down for the Old Library Redevelopment Project, apart from the first four bays. The Book of Kells, made by Irish monks around 800, is shown open at a two-page spread in the Old Library, and the Brian Boru Harp, made around 1400 and the model for the harp on Irish coins and the presidential seal, is on display there too.

The Long Room: Trinity's Living Library

Go to 15 Henrietta Street, the restored Georgian house Na Píobairí Uilleann has worked from since 2007

Watch a piper work the bellows, the bag, the chanter and the regulators at once, and count how many limbs are busy

Find out why bellows-blown pipes hold their tuning when mouth-blown pipes do not

Sit in on a recital or a class — both run here and are open to the public

Find out how Breandán Breathnach, Seán Reid and Séamus Mac Mathúna called the pipers together at Bettystown in 1968, and listen to Séamus Ennis or Leo Rowsome afterwards

The uilleann pipes are not blown. They came up in the early 18th century alongside the bellows-driven Northumbrian smallpipes and the Scottish Lowland pipes, all of them quieter and sweeter than the mouth-blown sets before them — but no other bellows pipe carries the uilleann pipes' regulators. A small bellows is strapped round the waist and the right arm, and pumping it fills the bag clamped under the other elbow — so dry air reaches the reeds instead of wet breath, which keeps the instrument in tune and leaves the player free to sing. There is a two-octave chanter, drones, and regulators struck with the wrist to lay chords under the tune. It is the most complicated bagpipe ever built, and it nearly died out. In 1968 Breandán Breathnach wrote to about a hundred pipers at home and abroad and called them to a gathering at Bettystown; Na Píobairí Uilleann came out of that meeting and works from a restored Georgian house at 15 Henrietta Street.

Na Píobairí Uilleann: The Pipes With the Bellows

Start at McDaid's on Harry Street, the literary mecca of the 1940s–50s where Brendan Behan first found his voice as a storyteller

Drink at The Palace Bar, haunt of Flann O'Brien

Stop at Kehoe's on South Anne Street, the snug bar of the three

Join the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, running since 1988 — professional actors perform Joyce, Behan, Wilde and Beckett across four historic pubs over two hours twenty

Dublin's writers worked in pubs because the rooms they lived in were cold, and the pubs are still standing. McDaid's on Harry Street was the literary headquarters of the 1940s and 50s, where Brendan Behan found his voice as a talker before he found it as a writer. The Palace Bar was Flann O'Brien's. McDaid's was the base for Kavanagh, Behan and Flann O'Brien between them. The Dublin Literary Pub Crawl has been running since 1988, with professional actors performing Joyce, Behan, Wilde and Kavanagh across four of them over about two hours twenty.

The Literary Pubs: McDaid's, the Palace and Kehoe's

Find 15 Marino Crescent in Clontarf, where Stoker was born on 8 November 1847

Walk Trinity College, where Stoker enrolled in 1864

Visit Marsh's Library and find the three wire 'cages' readers were locked into from the 1770s to stop book theft

Walk through Dublin Castle, where Stoker spent ten years as a civil servant before he ever wrote Dracula

Walk the Georgian streets around Merrion Square and Dublin Castle after dark, the city he grew up in

Abraham Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent in Clontarf, and spent the first seven years of his life bedridden with an illness nobody ever diagnosed — then recovered completely the day he started school. He went up to Trinity in 1864, and afterwards spent ten years as a civil servant in Dublin Castle while moonlighting as a drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail: the two jobs that gave Dracula its administrative precision and its theatrical instinct. Marsh's Library, opened in 1707 as the first public library in Ireland, still has the three wire reading cages installed in the 1770s to stop readers stealing the books.

Bram Stoker's Dublin: Marino Crescent to Marsh's Library

Browse the Temple Bar food market at the weekend — check the day and the square before you go

Sample artisan food stalls at George's Street Arcade, a Victorian indoor market that opened in 1881 as the South City Markets

Try fish and chips at Leo Burdock on Werburgh Street, Dublin's oldest chipper, serving since 1913

Look for black pudding and other Irish specialities at the food stalls inside George's Street Arcade

George's Street Arcade opened in 1881 as the South City Markets, burned down in 1892 and was rebuilt in the same style two years later — and it is still trading under its red-brick arches with food stalls among the shops. On Saturdays the Temple Bar Food Market fills Meeting House Square with producers. And Leo Burdock on Werburgh Street has been frying since 1913 and is the oldest chipper in the city, with nowhere to sit, which is how it is supposed to be eaten.