Few cities on this planet have been blessed with the rich literary history that has embraced Dublin over the ages. The roll call of famous writers who have called Ireland’s capital home is like a mental jaunt through any college literature course; James Joyce, WB Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, and George Bernard Shaw. The list goes on and on.
The Irish greatly revere their men of letters which means that Dublin is awash with tributes, monuments and even pub crawls which honor these great writers.
But where to start? Fortunately, The India Times recently ran a rather in-depth article covering the literary landmarks which Dublin has to offer the erudite traveler.
The wise and scholarly can loiter in the James Joyce Centre, peruse hand-written manuscripts in the Dublin Writers Museum, visit various writers’ homes, and catch a play at the famous Abbey Theatre which launched so much of Beckett’s work.
Oh, and just in case you find yourself in Dublin with a low-brow philistine, The India Times also delves briefly into less scholarly tourist sites which should prove more entertaining to the simple-minded. And then, of course, there are the pubs as well.
Tomorrow we continue our brief tour of Literary Ireland with a walking tour of dives and haunts made famous by Ireland’s literary greats.