I didn't visit the Guinness brewery or a pub until hours later and could walk just fine afterwards. Dublin is a real city. I can imagine real people living here and real things happening within its bounds. Don't get me wrong. Dublin has its share of tourists and traps, but unlike central London, these places don't dominate the landscape.
Pubs are the most abundant establishments, it seems, but the Irish do have a reputation to uphold.
I visited three pubs myself last night. I latched on to a musical pub crawl, led by a couple of traditional Irish musicians. This seemed a little on the clich d side, but I went with it. There was actually a fair number of Dublin locals in the crowd, and it was a good bunch overall. Most of the people were older, retired folks, but there were also a handful of students.