Aviva Stadium

The Aviva opened in 2010 on the hallowed turf of old Lansdowne Road, and from the outside it looks less like a stadium than a vast translucent wave that someone has parked in a Victorian suburb. That's no accident. Populous and Scott Tallon Walker were handed a brief that would have broken weaker architects: cram a 51,711-seat bowl onto a site smaller than the 25,000-capacity ground it replaced, with a working railway line cutting under the West Stand and the legal 'rights to light' of the neighbouring houses on Lansdowne Road dictating that the North Stand had to be sliced down to almost nothing. The result is that beautifully asymmetric, low-slung curved roof of 19,000 square metres of polycarbonate, glowing milky-blue at dusk like a giant lantern.

It's the only senior stadium in world sport jointly home to a national rugby team and a national football team, and the two tribes treat it very differently. On Six Nations Saturdays this is Andy Farrell's fortress: Ireland have just thumped Scotland 43-21 to nick a fourth Triple Crown in five years, only for Thomas Ramos to break Dublin hearts with a last-kick penalty in Paris that handed France back-to-back titles. Painful. Glorious.

The football tenancy is bumpier. Heimir Hallgrímsson's Republic of Ireland came within a Troy Parrott hat-trick of dragging themselves back from a calamitous qualifying start, only to lose 4-3 on penalties to Czechia in the March play-off semi. Hallgrímsson has since signed an extension through Euro 2028, so the green army keeps marching to Lansdowne Road for another cycle.

It's a serious concert venue too. Metallica's M72 tour rolls in for two nights in June 2026, Dermot Kennedy plays a homecoming double-header in July, and the ghosts of Springsteen's legendary three-night residencies still rattle around the polycarbonate.

Dublin wears its small size lightly. The Aviva sits in Ballsbridge, all red-brick Edwardian terraces and embassies, ten minutes by DART from a city centre where Trinity College, Temple Bar and the Guinness Storehouse are all walkable from each other.

This is a town built for the post-match pint and the early-doors session, where a Six Nations weekend means singing on the DART, jambon rolls at dawn and the unmistakable hum of 50,000 people walking back up Northumberland Road towards Baggot Street.

By DART

Lansdowne Road station is built into the West Stand itself, with trains arriving from Connolly, Tara Street and Pearse Street in about ten minutes. It is the easiest stadium arrival in Europe; the awkward bit is leaving with 30,000 others.

On foot

A 25-minute walk from Trinity College via Merrion Square, Lower Mount Street and across the canal onto Northumberland Road. Do this. It's flat, it's pretty, and every second doorway is a pub.

By bus and Luas

Dublin Bus routes run down Pearse Street and Bath Avenue; the Luas Green Line drops you at St Stephen's Green, a 20-minute stroll. Driving is futile: residential parking is permit-only on match days.

Get there early and drink locally. Slattery's D4 on Grand Canal Street is the three-minute-walk pre-match circus, with a roof terrace and a craft bar; The Bath on Bath Avenue does wood-fired pizzas in a south-facing courtyard if you fancy lining the stomach.

The real soul of a Lansdowne Road matchday is Beggar's Bush, the snug warren of streets behind the East Stand. Ryan's Beggars Bush has been Ryan-family-run for over a century and throws open a heated covered terrace with a barbecue grill on match days. Searsons on Baggot Street stocks 90-odd Irish whiskeys for the cold ones, and Crowe's on Crampton Court is the rowdy late-house when the final whistle blows.

Don't bother queuing for stadium pints. Get in at kickoff minus ten and stay outside until then.