The word "Dublin" originated in the Irish Dubh Linn (meaning "black pool"). Dublin's modern Irish name Baile átha Cliath (meaning "shoal city made of reed barrier") refers to settlements beside the black pool.

Although an exact consensus has not been reached regarding the definition of "Dublin metropolitan area", but this area generally includes Dublin City and Dublin County, and Wicklow, Kildare and Meath County because the commuter belt can be extended to distant places.

Dublin, across the Liffey River, is a cultural capital that possesses a lot of universities, academies of sciences and art galleries. Time-honored houses can be seen everywhere, all sorts of beautiful doors and windows are full of flowers and plants. The city is permeated with a thick rural breath. Many famous writers such as William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw were born here. Dublin enjoys Europe's oldest library, and painters and travelling players' performance are often seen in open squares and streets. The Guinness Brewery in the southwest is well known for its stout, and you can overlook the whole Dublin city on the top of the exhibition hall in this factory. If you want to seek history and culture in the travel, Dublin will give you many surprises.