Sidetracked in the capital

DUBLIN is crawling out from the collapsed dreams of the Celtic Tiger, fizzing with energy and new openings, and preferring ideas to greed, imagination to rampant development.

In the new Dublin, you can play Spiderman on the roof of Croke Park (skylinecrokepark.ie). You can bring your own wine (and vinyl) to The Vintage Kitchen (thevintagekitchen.ie). You can visit a Bram Stoker Museum in Clontarf (thestokerdraculamuseum.com), or you can spend Saturday slipping over to Dalkey Island in a kayak (deepblueseakayaking.com).

We know South William Street has had a second coming. But Capel Street, which has looked a year from ruin ever since I first visited, is bubbling with new arrivals — from independent cafes, like Brother Hubbard, (brotherhubard.ie) to restaurants, like Musashi (musashidublin.com), a Japanese joint as small and perfectly formed as its sashimi.