Ask anyone who works in tourism or travel in Ireland and they’ll tell you they’ve been asked, at least once, “Where can I go to see leprechauns?”
It’s the kind of question that used to stump the recipient, not wanting to burst anyone’s holiday bubble by saying “over there by the unicorns”.
Now we have a place to send them. The National Leprechaun Museum provides visitors with a 45 minute exploration of leprechauns from their earliest incarnation, in the 8th century, through to their modern day depiction via Hollywood and popular culture (mainly big hats with ginger wigs at football matches).
Guests are taken through an interactive story divided into chapters, each representing a facet of this national icon. The semi guided tour that begins, like Alice and the rabbit hole, by going through a tunnel to a place where nothing is as it seems.
Participants then move through a series of rooms including a giants’ room where you can get a sense of how the world must look if you’re a leprechaun. There’s a well room and a fairy fort too.
There’s also a rain room through which visitors pass, shielded by umbrellas, with a rainbow and a crock of gold at the end of it. Unfortunately the crock remains just out of reach, no matter how hard you try.
At the end, art materials are provided and guests encouraged to use their imagination to dream up a leprechaun of their own.
The museum is in the not-very-other-worldly environs of Jervis Street in Dublin. Family tickets cost €27.
leprechaunmuseum.ie