Taking a little summer break I went to visit Dublin for a few days, and of course to rifle through its various museums. Bucking the convention of how this is supposed to work I will be featuring two museums for both best and worst for what I hope will become obvious reasons.
The Best - Guinness Storehouse/National Leprechaun Museum
It should perhaps not be a surprise that the highest rated and most touted museum in all of Dublin was the best. But it still kind of was. Part art museum, part brew tour, part collection gallery the Guinness storehouse offers a simple and enjoyable experience for just about anyone.
The famed Guinness Storehouse Gates (Taken from ireland.com)
Spread over several floors the museum starts with a brief description of the ingredients and brewing of Guinness which is largely described through assorted art installations. A field of wheat, a rather nifty water curtain that is able to display words and images. It all fits together fairly well, getting across the key ideas in a fairly novel way. It hits well on Instagram-able moments and would to many have the effect of a modern art gallery. From here you climb up to a more traditional set of exhibits about how Guinness changed over the years including the making of barrels, transportation throughout the world and its famed advertising.
Part way through this there is also a tasting experience which expounds on some of the flavours and offers the drinking in a Victorian-themed drinking room.
Of course, at the top there is then a bar where your ticket gets you a free pint of Guinness or (if you’re like me and just the taster was plenty to let you know you don’t like it) a soft alternative. There are also a variety of eateries and additional tasting experiences for an additional fee.
In some ways the Guinness Storehouse doesn’t do anything particularly special. But it does it on such a grand size and scale, whilst doing it all so well that it truly is a fantastic visit. That’s not to say there aren't plenty of bits to pick at. The information that’s provided about nearly everything is pretty lacklustre, though this potentially works to its advantage as it keeps you moving at a reasonable pace. Additionally the whole place has a heavy hand of corporate propaganda for which your tolerance may vary.
Giving the best museum to the Guinness alone however feels a bit like a sports movie where the winning team is the favourites who have all the money, training facilities, and significantly larger players. So I wanted to at least share this spotlight with the National Leprechaun Museum.
Image from one of the rooms in the National Leprechaun Museum (Taken from National Leprechaun Museum)
A leprechaun museum could very well be a cheap cash grab. Throw in some gaudy statues, a couple plaques about the origins of the folk tales, and then whatever art and knickknacks you can find and call it a day. So whilst originally trepidatious I was delighted to say that the National Leprechaun museum was very much not that!
It’s not a traditional museum as such but rather a guided set of story telling. Moving between four different themed rooms your guide tells you a series of traditional folk tales. One set that’s family suitable and another more adult/horror themed set on select evenings.
This is such a simple setup that I’m kind of surprised I’ve never really seen it done quite this way before, and even though the tales were somewhat childish (I saw the normal daytime showing) they remained an absolute delight, delivered by an excellent guide.
The main disappointment was that whilst the sets were pleasant they were pretty much static. It likely wouldn’t take much to add things like triggerable sound effects, changing lighting, or maybe the odd item that moves to really add a sense of space to the stories being told.
Overall both of these museums are well worth your time if you’re visiting and I recommend booking ahead for both as they both sell out pretty quick.
The Worst - The Irish Famine Exhibition/The Irish Rock ‘n’ Roll Museum Experience
I often wrestle with what it means to be the best or the worst. In Poland it was a place that squandered its opportunity, Berlin about relying on technology but then not following through, and Amsterdam about something more masquerading as a museum than actually being one. But in Dublin it was just a plain bad museum classic.
The Irish Famine Exhibition was tucked away on the top floor of a half abandoned and fairly grotty shopping centre which whilst in theory a good idea wasn’t a great look. Upon actually getting to the exhibit I was greeted with bland posterboard stories placed around in an otherwise fairly empty room.
Image features in the Irish Famine Exhibition, there are no pictures of it for obvious reasons. (Taken from myguidedublin)
There is no one particular terrible thing about the exhibit. No grand lies, dreadful pieces or misleading placements but it’s just incredibly dull. The text and image on the poster boards are functional but uninspired. It’s possible to take away the facts of the experience but hardly the story.
It feels like an exhibit plucked from the pre-2000s and carries all the sensibilities of such. So whilst it’s perhaps not ‘bad’ in the way some of others have been it does have a complete lack of ‘good’ that earns it this spot.
Right before the end of my trip this was the clear winner of the worst museum but then the final place I visited was the Irish Rock ‘n’ Roll Experience.
Image of the Inside of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Museum (Taken from Viator)
The place wasn’t off to a great start when I realised it shared a ticket with the Wax Work place but heading down there was a corridor filled with a variety of records, guitars and the kind of thing you’d expect to see.
The tour guide (it’s a guided tour only) started telling tales about the rock legends that have passed through the facilities halls. Those that have played in the upstairs venue, how U2 rented out one of the practice rooms before they made it big.
He seemed like a nice enough guy but he utterly bored me to tears. I’ll write some day about the gamble that is guided tours but this guy was possibly the worst I’ve ever come across. I can’t pinpoint exactly why, nor do I think the others there were as off put as I was. But after about 40 minutes when he indicated that there was plenty more to see I did something I'd never done before, and simply left.
This is possibly not a fair reflection on either the tour guide or museum. But it did happen and I've endured through some pretty terrible guided tours before so I think it still deserves the title of shared worst.
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