Bloomsday is great fun and you’ll really enjoy the atmosphere both in the city and in the little southside villages of Sandycove and Glasthule. But James Joyce isn’t the only writer that you can discover.
A great place to start if you’re looking to discover other Irish writers is
The Museum of Literature Ireland. Try a guided tour or discover it at your own pace (the bookshop here is definitely worth a browse, too). Similarly, wandering through
Dublin you’re likely to come across some of the great literary figures who spent significant time in the city. A walk through Merrion Square takes you past Oscar Wilde’s house which is available for
guided tours, and a stroll through the front gates of
Trinity College Dublin will have you following in the footsteps of Connell and Marianne from Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People. If you have spent any time walking along the Grand Canal in Dublin, you may have spotted a statue of poet Patrick Kavanagh. Or, perhaps you’ve crossed the River Liffey via the Samuel Beckett Bridge - Beckett was one of our most famous playwrights. And don’t forget to pay a visit to the bust of poet Seamus Heaney at Sandymount Green.
Some of our writers associated with Dublin spent time further afield, too. Patrick Kavanagh travelled to Dublin in 1939 to pursue his literary career, but he was born in County Monaghan. His writing often featured the field landscapes of his birthplace in Monaghan, and if you’re interested in his work then a trip to the
Patrick Kavanagh Centre should definitely be on your list of must-visits.
Oscar Wilde lived in London and Paris, but he was born in Dublin in 1854 on Westland Row, and his childhood home is actually now part of Trinity College Dublin and serves as the
Centre for Irish Writing. You can learn more about Wilde and his famous wit at the Oscar Wilde House on Merrion Square, and visit his statue in the park opposite.
Nobel prizewinner WB Yeats was born in Sandymount in County Dublin in 1865. Yeats’ family moved to London when he was young, but he spent a lot of time during school holidays with his grandparents in
County Sligo where he took inspiration from the surrounding nature and landscape. You can find out more about Yeats at The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats at the
National Library of Ireland in Dublin.
Of course, these are just a few of our authors and there are many more to enjoy, from Dracula author Bram Stoker to author and journalist Maeve Binchy… So what are you inspired to read?