Ireland

MUSIC OF EVERY KIND. Landscapes of uninterrupted ravishing beauty. People of fabled charm. And incomparable opera and theater. All this and hardly a single American tourist competing for your pint of Guinness. When October rolls around, these cultural and scenic delights are just a little over nine hours away from Los Angeles on Aer Lingus (Ireland's national carrier) direct to Dublin. With a little strategic planning, you can take in a bit of the unique Dublin Theatre Festival, enchanting traditional Irish music, rocking Temple Bar nightlife and the astonishingly exotic Wexford Festival Opera.

In autumn, when the trees turn red and gold, the Emerald Isle becomes a riotous palette of colors. By renting a car and establishing two bases, one in Dublin and the other in Wexford Town, you can fully savor the island's musical offerings as well as its natural beauty. Allow two or three weeks at the very least (although one week is almost do-able), and if you're afraid of driving on what the Irish call the "right" side of the road, travel with someone who is not. Only central Dublin represents a serious challenge (it's best to use taxis and buses for downtown), but apart from a few large motorways, Irish roads are lovely, well-maintained and lightly traveled. They're narrow, of course, and lined with quirky directional signposts, but that's half their charm.

You may need to limit your sightseeing aspirations largely to the undulant green slopes and ancient ruins of the Wicklow Mountains and the serpentine sandy seacoast of the southeastern part of the republic, but side trips aren't absolutely out of the question --to Waterford, source of the lovely, expensive crystal; Kilkenny, ancestral home of every other Irish-American; and Cork, home of the Blarney Stone. Distances are not terribly great in Ireland. One does get lost now and then, but accidental discoveries of timeless, tiny villages make losing your way more pleasure than nuisance. And oh, it will rain, and gusty winds will blow, but in Ireland it really doesn't seem to matter.

JUST 88 MILES SOUTH OF DUBLIN is Wexford Town, an ancient place on the banks of the River Slaney, founded by the Vikings long before the Anglo-Norman conquests of Ireland in 1169. Today it's a busy small town boasting attractions from an ancient bull ring to an enormously popular Irish National Heritage Park, which exposes visitors to 9,000 years of the island's history.

Now in its 54th year, the Wexford Festival Opera (October 20 to November 6) has become the village's greatest claim to fame. The gala, held in a minuscule theater (555 seats in a hollowed-out shell of ordinary working-class houses), specializes in dynamic productions of offbeat and obscure operas worthy of revival, most of them rarely, if ever, seen anywhere else in the world. Using brilliant young singers and exciting stage directors, each season offers three different works in six cycles, each title succeeding the other over a period of 18 days. Last year's of- ferings included Saverio Mercadante's La Vestale, Walter Braunfels' Prinzessin Brambilla and Josef Bohuslav Foerster's Eva.

Coming up next are Gaetano Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, Gabriel Fauré's Pénélopeand--believe or not--Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, the only title with which San Diego Opera-goers can trump Wexford's international regulars in a game of title-dropping one-upmanship.

WHILE TUXEDOS AND FORMAL GOWNS are de rigueur inside the incongruously named Theatre Royal (the independent republic is not beholden to England's queen), the extensive Wexford Festival Opera Fringe offers innumerable informal recitals, big-band and jazz performances, traditional Irish music sessions, live theater and art and antique exhibitions. You may be constantly torn between leaving your comfortable B&B or hotel to go sightseeing or just staying put for what's going on in town. If you stay at Riverbank House Hotel (take Room 202 for a terrific view of the town across the River Slaney), you have a first-rate pub and restaurant that make being "at home" a pleasure.

In Dublin, the Great Southern Hotel offers modernity and convenience without any atmosphere to speak of, but car pickup and dropoff are a dream here; its shuttle service is matchless (and free); buses into town are quick and reasonably priced; the food and drink are good; and it's a fine place for stress-free flight arrivals and departures.

Visit the three-story pub-restaurant Oliver St. John Gogerty's in the Temple Bar neighborhood for craic(Gaelic for "a good time") and great folk-music sessions. Or go to the legendary Gate or Abbey Theatres for a taste of authentic Irish drama.

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