Will also depend if there is any football on how busy it could be.

Was hoping for lively bars with live music etc. City centre.

Won't be as lively as a weekend but there's live music on Mathew Street every night and also in the pubs/bars around Ranelagh Street/Great Charlotte Street. Some of them open till 2-3 midweek but probably not live music right through but often beyond midnight though. Students being back will make town a bit busier midweek and yeah if there's footy on it'll be busier too but a lot of those bars will have live music on every night regardless and can still have a decent atmosphere even on the less busy nights.

Thank you so much for your help. Looking forward to exploring your great city. We're staying on Duke Street so pretty central to everything.

An advantage of staying midweek is that some of the restaurants have good offers on - eg the Greek Taverna on Bold Street has an early bird offer which is on all day Tue or Bistro Pierre on Button St (just behind Mathew St) has a fixed price until 6pm.

I've eaten in both of these a few times midweek and it was still fairly busy.