My older son loves going to Ireland. When I ask him why, he gives me the same answer every time: the people there are always happy to talk with me. Interesting perspective from an introvert.

His observation fits all of Ireland. The country runs on conversation. The pub is the community living room. The bardic tradition goes back more than a thousand years, and the word for storyteller, seanchaí, is still in use.

Why Dingle

Rick Steves has been calling Dingle his favorite town in Ireland for thirty years. “Colorful little Dingle,” he writes, “perches on Ireland’s westernmost point.” Dingle has fewer than two thousand residents and, by local count, more pubs per capita than any town in Ireland. The traditional Irish music scene in those pubs ranks among Ireland’s best. The harbor still launches fishing boats. The town is a Gaeltacht, one of Ireland’s officially Irish-speaking districts, where the language remains in daily use. The peninsula around it is dense with prehistoric and early Christian sites. You’ll see Iron Age beehive huts, ring forts, early Christian oratories, and standing stones older than the pyramids. The land at the end of the road is the westernmost point of Europe.

Use Dingle as the anchor for the southwest leg of an Ireland trip. First-time visitors pair Dublin (2 nights) with a west coast loop of 4 to 6 nights, including 2 to 3 nights in Dingle and a stop at the Ring of Kerry or the Burren. Music-focused travelers pair Dingle with Doolin in County Clare. Fly into Dublin, Shannon, or Kerry Airport (Farranfore). The drive from Dublin is about four hours, from Shannon two and a half, from Kerry forty-five minutes. Rent a car. You’ll want it for Slea Head Drive, the thirty-mile loop around the peninsula.

Eat at Out of the Blue, where the chalkboard menu changes daily with the catch. Walk Inch Beach at low tide. Tour the Dingle Distillery if you like whiskey. Hear a music session most nights at An Droichead Beag, Foxy John’s, or O’Sullivan’s Courthouse.

Inside the pub

Irish pubs are built for this. Foxy John’s is a hardware store by day and a pub by night. Rick Steves recommends never sitting at a table. “Stand or sit at the bar,” he writes, “and you’ll be engulfed in conversation with new friends.” Buying a round means asking everyone what they’re drinking. That’s how you learn names. Everyone faces the music when it starts. Between sets, people talk. By the third night, the bartender knows yours. The Irish say that in a pub, you’re a guest on your first night, and a regular after that.

For an introvert, the relief is not having to start the conversation. In Ireland, someone else often does.