Irish Rock and Roll Museum Tickets with Guided Tour Dublin

Irish Rock 'N' Roll Museum Experience

Opened in the heart of Temple Bar, the Irish Rock 'N' Roll Museum Experience tells the real story of how a small island produced some of the most influential rock and pop music of the last sixty years. It is not a museum where you wander alone: every visit is a fully guided tour, and the guides are passionate storytellers who bring the careers, struggles and triumphs of Irish musicians to life with humour and plenty of anecdotes.

The exhibition rooms are filled with memorabilia, including guitars, handwritten lyrics, stage outfits, posters and gold discs from Irish bands and from international stars who worked in Dublin. A dedicated exhibition celebrates one of the best-loved Irish rock bands of the 1970s, and photographic displays trace the rise of Irish rock from the showband era to the stadium years. If you are wondering whether the Irish Rock N Roll Museum is worth visiting, music fans usually leave saying it is one of the most fun museums in Dublin.

Behind the scenes: venue, rehearsal rooms and studio

What makes this visit different from a classic museum is that the building is still a working music centre. Your ticket works like an access-all-areas pass: the guide takes you into one of Dublin's well-known live music venues, past rehearsal rooms where bands prepare for tours, and into a commercial recording studio that has hosted many famous Irish artists over the years.

In the studio you see the mixing desk, the live room and the equipment used to record albums today, and the guide explains how a song travels from a rehearsal to a finished record. Depending on the day, you may hear a band practising nearby. Video recording is not allowed inside, but photos are part of the fun, and there are interactive moments along the way that make the tour lively for teenagers as well as adults.

Temple Bar and the Wall of Fame

The museum is housed behind the Wall of Fame, a large outdoor display of portraits of Irish music legends on the side of a building in Temple Bar. Temple Bar is Dublin's cultural quarter, a web of narrow cobbled streets between the River Liffey and Dame Street, full of galleries, small theatres, street performers, craft shops and cafés. Its name goes back to the seventeenth century, when the area was laid out along the riverbank.

The entrance is on Curved Street, a short modern street in the middle of the quarter lined with several cultural centres and music spaces. After your tour, walk two minutes north to the river and the Ha'penny Bridge, or south to Dame Street, Dublin Castle and Trinity College. Things to do in Temple Bar are within easy reach, so the museum fits well into a day of sightseeing in central Dublin.

Planning your visit

Guided tours run every day, with start times from about 10:30 to 17:00, and each tour lasts around 75 minutes. Choose your time in the booking panel and arrive at Curved Street a few minutes before it begins. Tours are in English; the guides speak clearly and are happy to answer questions, so the visit works well even if English is not your first language.

The tour includes stairs and narrow spaces in a working building, so it is not suitable for wheelchair users, and it is not recommended for children under five. Teenagers aged 13 to 17 have a reduced youth price. Concert tickets and restricted areas are not part of the visit. Because it is indoors, the museum is one of the best rainy-day activities in Dublin and pairs well with an evening show or a walk along the river.