Catching up with Dublin

These days when I walk around Dublin I play a mental game; I look up at the new buildings and wonder what used to be there before they built this one? Most times I cannot remember, so rapid is the pace of ongoing change.

The process of revitalising the inner city, begun a decade ago, is now coming to visible fruition. Neighbourhoods, once derelict, have taken on new life and one senses local communities are springing up in the most unlikely places.

Temple Bar, long touted as the prototype for enlightened redevelopment, is only one of many areas experiencing a transformation. The Financial Centre has more than 600 permanent residents, in addition to the daily influx of business traffic, and this is just one part of the rapidly developing docklands; meanwhile, the old Smithfield markets area is gradually giving ground to apartment blocks and cultural centres such as the Collins Barracks wing of the National Museum, the Whiskey Museum run by Irish Distillers and of course the Guinness Hop Store, the forerunner of many modern art exhibitions in the city.

Curving streetscapes with interesting vistas have sprung up in the shadow of St Patrick's and Christ Church, encircling the remains of the historic Viking settlement. Just yards away from where young archaeologists are unearthing the wattle walls of the old Norse town, you can sit down to a Viking dinner complete with all the theatrical trimmings.

Close to the site of the old hall in Fishamble Street where Handel first gave his Messiah to the world, a new hotel has been built and named after the composer.

Recently I stood on the old walls of the city under the shadow of St Audeon's church. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon with the peals of the twin cathedrals ringing out; children were playing in the public park that surrounds the new Corporation Civic Offices. With me was Pat Liddy who has been charting the changes in the Dublin landscape for more than a decade. His books, lavishly illustrated by himself, have become collector's items.

He says there was never a better time to meander through the streets of Dublin than now, when the city is undergoing massive transformation. "One needs to talk to people, listen to local accents and stop off at one of the new coffee-houses or theme bars that now compete as a social centres with the pubs."

Street theatre, he says, has brought a whole new feeling of participation and pride to local communities. There is more variety in Dublin's architecture than in most European capitals - if only we would take the time to stop and look up at it and explore the interiors of the great buildings that form the Georgian heritage. Liddy's latest book, Walking Dublin, is an invitation to explore the city from many perspectives: its buildings, institutions, historic growth, pubs restaurants, theatres, famous people. The walks are set out so that they are manageable for families as well as individuals.

The book offers 24 walks in and around Dublin from the city centre stretching out on both sides of Dublin Bay. Towns such as Howth, Malahide, Dalkey and Dun Laoghaire still retain their distinctiveness, with their own calendar of events and festivals all worth exploring in themselves.

Greater Dublin has an unparalleled shoreline, most of which can be traversed on foot. Most of us have driven out and stopped off at the Vico Road on the way to Killiney but as Liddy sees it, you have to climb up the zig-zag steps called the Cat's Ladder to capture the full panoramic sweep of the Bay. Each suggested walk is timed, includes information on how to get there by public transport and a list of refreshment stops on the way. When you are finished you feel you have really seen and got to know the place as distinct from peeking at it from the top of a bus or though the window of a car.

Meanwhile, for those interested in the 1798 commemorations Denis Carroll, author of The Man from God Knows Where, has written a pamphlet, Dublin in 1798 - Three Illustrated Walks. The walks traverse the 18th-century city of cobbled narrow lanes and crowded taverns, the areas lived in and traversed by Tone, Russell, Emmet, Major Sirr and his bunch of informers - all the cast of participants in the abortive Rebellion in Dublin.

Best overall source for information on what's on, where and when is Dublin Tourism's Centre in the old St Andrew's Church in Suffolk Street. It dispenses information, makes reservations and you can have coffee while you wait.

Walking Dublin by Pat Liddy is published by New Holland. Price £9.99.

Dublin in 1798 - Three Illustrated Walks, by Denis Carroll, with illustrations by Orla Davin, is published by South Hill Communications. Price £2.99.