Normal People: Sligo, Dublin, Trieste

In the story, Marianne and Connell attend the same secondary school in County Sligo, where he is popular and she is an outsider. The series never went to Sligo for it. The school scenes were filmed at Hartstown Community School in Clonsilla, Dublin, with real students as extras. The location manager, Eoin Holohan, was drawn to its endless corridors, where the camera floats behind the actors' heads. It is a working school, so look from outside.

Location precision: The school is set in Sligo; the pin marks the Dublin school used as a stand-in.

The novel's small Sligo town is fictional. For the series, Tubbercurry mainly became Carricklea. On Teeling Street, Brennan's, a traditional pub, hosted the New Year's Eve scenes, and the production also used the local church. The town is in south Sligo, a long way from the Dublin world the characters move to next.

Location precision: Carricklea does not exist; the pin marks the Tubbercurry pub used for filming.

Visitor guidance: Brennan's is a pub on Teeling Street, Tubbercurry.

Marianne convinces Connell to apply to Trinity with her, and both end up there as elected scholars. Marianne blossoms while Connell struggles to fit in. The series filmed on campus, with Trinity students as extras. The Berkeley Library served as Connell's study spot, and the brutalist architecture became part of the look. Trinity is one of Ireland's most prominent tourist attractions, with more than 2 million visitors a year.

Visitor guidance: The main site is in central Dublin by College Green.

The novel sends the characters on a group trip to Trieste. The series shot it in central Italy instead, in and around Sant'Oreste, Stimigliano and the villa Il Casale on Tenuta di Verzano in Lazio, just outside Rome. So the Trieste of the screen is a Lazio hillside, not Trieste itself.

Location precision: The pin marks Sant'Oreste; the exact filming spots at the villa are not pinned.

In the novel, Marianne studies abroad in Sweden for a year, keeping in touch with Connell by email. The series filmed its Luleå scenes in February 2020, a month chosen to guarantee enough snow and a Baltic Sea frozen over, for a scene depicting Marianne walking. It is a long way from Sligo, and the only stop on this route that lies in Sweden.

Location precision: The pin marks Luleå town; the exact stretch of frozen sea is not identified.