Literary Dublin
See where Oscar Wilde grew up, Samuel Beckett played cricket and James Joyce liked to drink
Illustration: Victoria Mitchell
Words: Alistair Duncan
Whether you prefer to do your research in a museum or in the pub, take time out to discover Dublin’s rich literary history
EVERY YEAR ON 14 JUNE, a group of people dressed in Edwardian clothes walk into Davy Byrne’s pub in Dublin. Going up to the bar, they each order exactly the same thing: a gorgonzola cheese sandwich and a glass of burgundy wine. You might be forgiven for thinking that this eccentric group of dandies might be members of an Edwardian cheese and wine appreciation society. Or extras from a film set. Or just plain loopy. They are, in fact, James Joyce fans.
For on this day each year, devotees of the Dublin-born writer congregate to pay homage to his great masterpiece Ulysses, set on 14 June 1904 on the streets of the Irish capital. It’s a day of general celebration across the city, with public readings, seminars and James Joyce walks, but one of the more fun activities is to go round Dublin and restage famous scenes from the book. The scene they are recreating above is when the novel’s protagonist, Leopold Bloom, walks into the famous Dublin pub to meet his friend Nosey Flynn. Famously, he orders the “gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy”. This quirky little detail of the novel is now a ritual for Joycean pilgrims as they celebrate one of Dublin’s most famous literary sons.
But Dublin has sired many a scribe. The 19th century heralded a golden age in Irish letters, as three Dublin writers emerged who would change the course of English literature: George Bernard Shaw, Oscar
Wilde and William Butler Yeats.
And many landmarks associated with the city’s literary stars remain to this day. Where did Samuel Beckett play cricket? And where did James Joyce used to drink to the wee hours? Here’s a guide to Dublin and its literary landmarks.
Jonathan Swift
Born at 8 Hoey’s Court, Dublin, on 30 November 1667, Jonathan Swift was the son of English immigrants. The first in a long line of famous wordsmiths to be educated at Trinity College, Dublin’s oldest university, Swift went on to enjoy a prolific career as an essayist, poet and satirical writer, his most famous work being Gulliver’s Travels.
He divided his time between England and his native Ireland, but in his mature years took up the post of Dean of
St Patrick’s Cathedral,
Ireland’s oldest church.
His grave and epitaph can be found in the church on St Patrick’s Close, just south of the River Liffey.
St Patrick’s Cathedral, St Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8, +353 1 453 9472; www.. stpatrickscathedral.ie
James Clarence Mangan
James Clarence Mangan was born the son of a poor grocer, but by the time of his untimely death in 1849, aged just 46, he had become Ireland’s most celebrated poet. He was born in Dublin and spent most of his life there, contributing poems and translations of foreign poems to literary magazines. A street is now named in honour of him; Clarence Mangan Road. There is also a memorial to him in St Stephen’s Green, in the Tenters district of the city.
George Bernard Shaw
Shaw was born on 3 Upper Synge Street, now 33 Synge Street, a small, humble abode where his mother would often host musical soirées. It was here, growing up in genteel poverty, that the Nobel Prize-winning writer would begin to forge the characters who would people his politically charged plays, such as Pygmalion, which became the basis of the internationally acclaimed musical My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn. The house was opened to the public in 1993 and remains a quaint picture-postcard view of Victorian Dublin. The Shaw Birthplace, 33 Synge Street, Dublin 8, +353 1 475 0854; Monday-Friday – 10am to 5pm (closed Wednesday), Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays – 2pm to 5pm, closed 1pm to 2pm. 7
Oscar Wilde
“I have nothing to declare but my genius!” exclaimed Oscar Wilde in one of his trademark witticisms. But a genius of the English language he was indeed.
The playwright was born into an affluent family at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, and lived at 1 Merrion Square, where a magnificent series of Georgian townhouses remain to this day. Wilde lived here until he was 21, attending Trinity College, where apparently he showed great promise as a boxer. The home is now only commemorated by a small plaque to the great wit, but a statue of the writer can also be found in the square itself: lounging on a rock, in sea green jacket, lined with a luxuriant red collar, the memorial is every bit as colourful as the man himself.
Wilde reached the heights of Victorian fame with plays including An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. His private life was tumultuous, though, and he fled Ireland aged 24, after a girl he loved, Florence Balcombe, became engaged to Gothic horror writer Bram Stoker. For much of his life Wilde had homosexual affairs (then illegal) and was as a result imprisoned for two years. Despite being one of the age’s greatest celebrities, he died penniless in Paris in 1900.
William Butler Yeats
Merrion Square was also the address of WB Yeats, who had two homes there, at 52 and 82. The poet and dramatist was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, but it was in 1904 that he established the Abbey Theatre on Lower Abbey Street, a nursery for young Irish writing talent, now known as The National Theatre of Ireland. John Millington Synge’s Playboy of the Western World caused riots when first staged here in 1907, depicting, as it did, Irish peasants not as romanticised rural dwellers, but as being as morally adrift as their urban counterparts. The Abbey Theatre, 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, +353 1 878 7222, www.abbeytheatre.ie
James Joyce
When a 37-year-old Yeats met James Joyce, then the next star of Irish literature, the young upstart is said to have quipped: “We have met too late. You are too old for me to have any effect on you.” Joyce
denied ever saying this but it has passed into literary folklore nonetheless. The unflinchingly self-assured Joyce became a giant of 20th-century literature, with works such as Finnegan’s Wake and Ulysses.
He was born at 41 Brighton Square, in Rathgar, and studied at Belvedere College, then University College, before fleeing Ireland for most of his adult life. But his writing was always suffused with Dublin. Ulysses was set in the Irish capital recording a single day as Leopold Bloom walked about the city. The date for the book, 14 June 1904, was the day Joyce had gone on a first date with his lifelong partner Nora Barnacle.
The James Joyce Centre, at 35 North Great George’s Street, has amassed a wealth of Joycean artefacts, such as the original front door from 7 Eccles Street (Leopold Bloom’s home in Ulysses). The centre also offers walks of Joyce’s Dublin every Saturday, taking in sights such as Belvedere College (where Joyce was a pupil in the 1890s), the Gresham Hotel (one of the locations of the story The Dead) and the Ormond Hotel (location of the ‘Sirens’ episode in Ulysses). Like many an Irish writer, Joyce enjoyed a tipple and was often found at The Bleeding Horse pub, where poet James Clarence Mangan used to prop up the bar 100 years previously.
James Joyce Centre, 35 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1, +353 1 878 8547; www.jamesjoyce.ie The Bleeding Horse, 24 Camden Street Upper, Dublin 2, +353 1 475 2705
Samuel Beckett
Joyce was a mentor to Samuel Beckett, who became a world-famous visionary of bleakness, with absurdist plays such as Waiting for Godot. Beckett grew up in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, before being schooled at the city’s Earlsford House School. A natural athlete, Beckett played cricket for Dublin University, twice at first-class level against Northamptonshire. As such, he is the only Nobel Laureate to have an entry in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. Wander to the College Parks, where the team has its grounds, and imagine the literary great delivering one of his left-arm Yorkers.
J M Synge
John Millington Synge was born in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, in 1871. After studying at Trinity College, he may have become a professional musician, were he not painfully shy about performing in public. He ditched his musical studies to pursue his second love, literature, going on to become a pivotal figure in the Irish Literary Revival. One of his strong beliefs was that a basic paganism underpinned the Irish way of thinking, despite the country’s strong Catholicism. His play The Playboy of the Western World caused riots in Dublin after it was first performed, although his friend WB Yeats quelled the crowds by delivering a speech to them on its second night. Synge died of Hodgkin’s disease (then incurable), aged just 37.
Dublin Writers Museum
For a one-stop shop, there’s also the lovely Dublin Writer’s Museum. A treasure trove of literary artefacts, such as a signed refusal from Bernard Shaw to provide an autograph and Samuel Beckett’s telephone, the place brings to life Dublin’s literary heritage. Pop in to soak up the writerly atmosphere of this literary city – or else, see you at Davy Byrne’s for that gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy.
Dublin Writers Museum, 18 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, +353 1 872 2077; www.writersmuseum.com Davy Byrne, 21 Duke Street, Dublin 2, +353 1 677 5217; www.davybyrnes.com
Literary Dublin today
One reason why Dublin continues to be a hotbed of literary talent is that since 1969 all artists have enjoyed tax-free earnings on their creative work, encouraging foreign writers to flock there. Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, for instance, lives in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh, while DBC Pierre, Michel Houellebecq and Frederick Forsyth have all moved to Ireland to write.
But Dublin is also the epicentre of Irish writing. Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments, continues to sell books by the thousands on gritty, working class Dublin life. Man Booker Prize-winner John Banville was born in Wexford but has lived in Dublin for many years. Also born in Wexford but living in Dublin is Colm Toibin, a celebrated journalist and novelist. Ulster-born Seamus Heaney has lived in Dublin since 1976 and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Dublin Writer’s Festival takes place on 13-17 June; www.dublinwritersfestival.com
