Nobody in Dublin will commit to spring in March. The evenings are drawing out and the bulbs are up in the Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin, but the weather has not been told, and rain falls on nearly half the days, which Dubliners regard less as a forecast than as a description of home. It is a good month for a city break all the same, and the one real decision is whether to come for St Patrick's Day or to stay well clear of it.
In the middle of the month the city is briefly handed over to everyone else. St Patrick's Festival normally runs for four or five days around 17 March, and most of it is free, the parade on the 17th included. The parade leaves Parnell Square at noon, processes down O'Connell Street, crosses O'Connell Bridge and wanders south to finish where Cuffe Street meets Kevin Street. No ticket is needed, although covered grandstand seats are sold to those who prefer their pageantry with a roof. On O'Connell Bridge a very large crowd discovers that it is being funnelled, and a spot further along on the south side tends to be more comfortable. Check the programme for the exact days, and on the 17th keep lunchtime free of anything that requires crossing the Liffey in the city centre.
The hotels know when St Patrick's Day is. Over the festival weekend the city is close to sold out and priced accordingly, so book early, or come in the first week of March, when Dublin is its ordinary, likeable self and the Dublin International Film Festival is often finishing its run. That week also opens Seachtain na Gaeilge, the festival of the Irish language, which runs from 1 to 17 March. The name means Irish Week. It was founded as one in 1902, now runs to seventeen days, and has sensibly kept its title.
On a wet day, head for the National Botanic Gardens, which cost nothing to enter and have glasshouses big enough to wait out a shower in. On the first dry morning, put on proper shoes and take the DART to Howth. The Cliff Path Loop starts at the station and takes about two hours round the Nose of Howth, with Ireland's Eye and Lambay Island out to sea and, where the path swings south, the Baily lighthouse on its point.