1. Dublin is quite a youthful city with almost half of the population (48 per cent) under 35 years of age.

2. The Phoenix Park is Europe's largest city park and second only in the world to New York's Central Park. It has also been home to a herd of wild Fallow deer since the 17th century!

3. Hollywood actors Maureen O'Hara, Brendan Gleeson, Gabriel Byrne, Colin Farrell all hail from Dublin.

4. Dublin's George Bernard Shaw is the only person to have both a Nobel Prize, which he won for his contribution to literature, and an Oscar, which he won for his work Pygmalion. Pygmalion is also the inspiration for the musical and movie, My Fair Lady.

5. The chair on which George Frederic Handel is said to have used for the first performance of The Messiah in Dublin in 1742 is now in the Dublin Writers Museum, 18 Parnell Square .

6. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, is a Dubliner and the name Dracula is said to have sprung from the Irish words for 'bad blood', which are droch-fhoula, but pronounced droc-ola.

7. The lion which roars at the start of MGM films was born at Dublin Zoo in 1927!

8. The remains of St. Valentine, the lovers' saint, are said to be buried at a Carmelite Church in Whitefriar Street in Dublin City.

9. Dublin is twinned with Beijing in the People's Republic of China, Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain, Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and San Jose in California, USA.

10. The famous 'Oscar' statuette used at the Academy Awards was designed by Cedric Gibbons, who was born in Dublin in 1823.

The list of interesting facts about Dublin could go on and on. Why not learn some more first-hand by touring this top destination and with lots of "free entry" to museums, art galleries' and an abundance of parks it makes for an interesting and good value day out for all the family!