Although DUNDALK has a reputation as a tough border town, home to uncompromising Republicanism, it still has enough interest to justify a visit. Starting life in legendary prehistory as a fort guarding a gap in the mountains to the north (Dún Dealga, the “Fortress of Dealga”), it became in turn a Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Norman, Jacobean and finally Williamite stronghold. This hard tradition seems still to hang over the town, and it never seems a place where you – or for that matter the locals – can feel fully at ease (having said that, the town has some excellent pubs).