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World War II Private Guided Walking Tour of Dublin
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From €165 per person
Ireland stayed neutral during World War II - but that didn’t mean the war passed it by. Dublin was bombed several times by German air raids. The Irish government declared a state of emergency on 2 September 1939. And what happened in the years that followed, a period the Irish state officially called “The Emergency,” shaped the country in ways that are still felt today.
This private two-hour walking tour covers that history with a licensed history guide who conducts the tour in your preferred language. You’ll hear about internment and censorship, the IRA’s role during the war, Irish Army deserters who joined the armed forces of other nations, and how WWII intersected with the long story of Irish independence and the question of partition.
The route includes Kilmainham Gaol, where IRA members were detained and executed during this period, and finishes at the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, dedicated to the Irish soldiers who died in WWI. The final stop is the Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park, which commemorates Arthur Wellesley - an Anglo-Irish soldier who became one of the key military and political figures of 19th-century Britain.
Meeting point: Front entrance of Hilton Dublin Kilmainham, South Circular Road, Kilmainham, Dublin D08 XAK3. Please wait outside - do not enter the hotel.
This is a topic most general Dublin tours don’t cover. The standard walking tour circuit covers 1916, the Vikings, Georgian streets, and Trinity College. Ireland’s relationship with WWII - the censorship, the internments, the tens of thousands of Irish men who quietly crossed the border or the Irish Sea to fight anyway - rarely comes up in the usual itinerary. If you want to understand modern Ireland, “The Emergency” is one of the more important chapters.
The Irish National War Memorial Gardens are genuinely worth your time. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and completed in 1939, they’re among the best examples of Lutyens’ work in Ireland. The gardens sit on the banks of the Liffey in Islandbridge and are often quiet, even on busy Dublin weekends. Plan to spend a few minutes just walking through them after the formal tour is done.
Kilmainham Gaol is close by if you want to go inside. The tour passes the gaol but doesn’t include entry. If you want to see the interior - which was where the leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed, and where conditions during the 19th century were grim even by Victorian prison standards - book a separate ticket in advance. It gets very busy in summer.
Phoenix Park is one of the largest enclosed urban parks in Europe. After the Wellington Monument, it’s worth knowing that the park also contains the Irish President’s residence, the US Ambassador’s residence, Dublin Zoo, and the Papal Cross from John Paul II’s 1979 visit, when over a million people gathered here. Your guide may touch on some of this, and it’s a nice place to walk further if the weather is decent.
Book a language other than English if that suits you better. The guide is fluent in German, Russian, Italian, and French as well as English. For families or groups where English isn’t everyone’s first language, this makes a real difference to how much people get from the tour.