By Irene Woodbury

For literature and history buffs, Dublin is a must-see. It’s the only city of its size to be the birthplace or home of four Nobel laureates: William Butler Yeats (1923), George Bernard Shaw (1925), Samuel Beckett (1969) and Seamus Heaney (1995), as well as a slew of other well-known writers, including Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Jonathan Swift and Bram Stoker.

Centuries of epic religious, political and social struggles and a traditional love for both language and storytelling have created a rich literary tradition in Ireland, particularly in Dublin. But gaining access to the city’s myriad literary sites and attractions while on vacation can be as challenging as reading Joyce. Dublin’s layout is a tangle, with street names sometimes changing mid-block and signing that defies logic.

Another problem is a lack of literary tours. The James Joyce Cultural Centre on the city’s north side offers three weekly afternoon walks that pertain to Joyce’s work or life. Aside from these, there are a few pub crawls and a lone literary/Georgian walk, offered in the summer, that is actually more Georgian.

Undaunted, my husband and I tried a self-guided walk in a tour book, but got lost repeatedly because of vague and inaccurate directions. The content was solid, but it took a village to get us through . . .

Ultimately, we explored literary Dublin by expanding and embellishing the self-guided walk into a tour that can be completed in a few hours—without stops—or longer, depending on the time spent at various sites. Directions and tour information are included. (See sidebar.) We also took two of the three Joyce tours as separate excursions.

Most of Dublin’s literary essentials are covered on the walk, from 
elegant Merrion Square, where writers lived in towering Georgian terrace houses, to sprawling St. Stephen’s Green, where Joyce roamed between classes at Catholic University.

At Shaw’s Birthplace, the childhood home of George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), we wandered through seven darkly splendid rooms brimming with Victorian furnishings, dishes and linens. At #82 Merrion Square, we saw the regal pale-green drawing room where William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), a senator in the Irish Parliament, celebrated after winning the Nobel Prize in 1923. 

Across from it is Oscar Wilde’s (1854 - 1900) childhood home, built in the 1760s. Here, we lingered in the "ballroom-blue" dining room and "cooking-apple-green" drawing room, where young Oscar sharpened his legendary wit at his mother’s Saturday-night cultural salons. Outside, in verdant Merrion Square, is a remarkable 1997 sculpture of Wilde reclining on a huge rock: Its face and hands are porcelain; the green smoking-jacket, jade; and the grey trousers, marble.

The modest red-brick Kildare Street house of Bram Stoker (1847 - 1912), who wrote Dracula, is a block from 16th century Trinity College where he studied math. Trinity, alma mater of Wilde, Beckett and Swift, is home of the Book of Kells—on view in its Old Library. Speaking of Swift, in 13th century St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the walk’s first stop, is the formidable pulpit from which this author of Gulliver’s Travels, a dean here, addressed the congregation from 1713 until his death in 1745. Looming over a side aisle is a dramatic bust of Swift marking his grave.

Across the serene River Liffey, via romantic O’Connell Bridge, the walk moves from Dublin’s south side to its north. Here, the Abbey Theatre, co-founded by Yeats in 1904, and the adjoining Peacock, form Ireland’s National Theatre. I envisioned an ornate Renaissance facade, but the original burned down in the 1950s and its replacement looks like a medical building.

The walk concludes at the Dublin Writers Museum on Parnell Square. I enjoyed my 90-minute stroll through this fascinating literary hodgepodge. Where else could I see a phone from Beckett’s Paris apartment; a late 1890s’ theatre program for Wilde’s play, An Ideal Husband; postcards written by Shaw or first editions of Dracula (1897) and poetry by Yeats and Joyce? 

Equally enlightening is the Joyce Centre, which opened in the mid-1990s to honor this revered writer, who spent most of his childhood in Dublin but left in 1904 to escape its rigid conservatism. Located in a beautifully restored 1783 mansion, the centre has three floors of large, airy rooms painted in Georgian greys, greens, mauves and yellows. 

This Joycean shrine is richly studded with family photos and portraits, books and posters and copies of manuscripts and notebooks. A round table used by Joyce as he wrote Finnegan’s Wake in Paris is here, as is the heavy black door of #7 Eccles St., fictional home of Leopold Bloom and his wife, Molly. They are major characters in Joyce’s 1922 masterpiece, Ulysses, which chronicles the lives and wanderings of many fictional Dubliners on June 16, 1904.

To this day, this date is celebrated in Dublin as Bloomsday. We witnessed this year’s revelry; in cafes, pubs, streets and squares we encountered Dubliners dressed in Edwardian clothes that evoke Joyce or characters from Ulysses. 

For more on Bloom—and Ulysses—we joined a group of 10 on a balmy spring afternoon for the centre’s Tuesday walk, The Footsteps of Leopold Bloom. The 75-minute trek, guided by scholarly Conor Farnan, has about 10 stops and traces Bloom’s lunchtime amble from the offices of the Freeman’s Journal/Evening Telegraph (now an Eason’s bookstore) to Davy Byrne’s pub. Here, Bloom lunches on a gorgonzola-and-mustard sandwich (still on the menu) and a glass of Burgundy before proceeding to the National Library for a discussion on Hamlet.

Post-walk, we wandered through the black iron gates of the massive library to visit the exciting, innovative Joyce exhibit on view through spring 2006. I loved the recreated writer’s studio—shabby, cluttered, grimy—and video footage of lean, bespectacled Joyce in creamy Edwardian tweeds and jaunty straw boaters.

We also took the centre’s Thursday walk, Land of the Cyclops. (Ulysses is modeled on Homer’s Odyssey, with 18 episodes named for events or characters in this Greek classic.) With lively, petite Tanya McClelland, we saw the red-brick house where Joyce’s friend, Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878 - 1957), a poet, surgeon and the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in Ulysses, was born. Later, we strolled along Henrietta, a Georgian street lined with grand grey-brick row houses portrayed by Joyce in his 1914 book, Dubliners. 

The 10 of us stood isilently gazing at mid-18th century Green Street courthouse, still in use though chipped and faded, where Irish liberators were jailed, tried and hung from the mid-1700s. Joyce refers to it in Ulysses. Across from it, on Little Britain Street, is the location of Kiernan’s Pub, scene of Bloom’s confrontation with "Citizen" in Ulysses. 

The only type of literary tour we didn’t sample in Dublin was a pub crawl. Should a pub-break become necessary during the self-guided walk, head to one with a literary pedigree. The Duke and Davy Byrne’s on Duke Street are two. A couple of blocks away, on Harry Street, is McDaid’s, which dates to 1779 and, near O’Connell Bridge, the Palace Bar. The $10 to $12 cost of a guided walk can be put to good use here—and what could be more literary than a pub-break in Dublin?

Dublin Self-Guided Literary Walk

First stop: St. Patrick’s Cathedral. From tourism information office at 2 Suffolk St., city center, go left to corner. Cross to Trinity St. Walk one block to Dame St. Go left five to six blocks, as Dame becomes Lord Edward St. Road will curve to the left. Stay left to Nicholas St. It becomes Patrick St. Follow Patrick two blocks to cathedral. (Open daily, 9 am - 6 pm. Admission: $6. Phone: 011 35 31 475 4817. Web: www.stpatrickscathedral.ie)

Outside cathedral, continue on Patrick to light at corner—Kevin St. Go left on St. Patrick side. Walk to light, cross and continue on Kevin, as the road curves, to next light, Wexford St. Turn right. Pass four lights to Harrington St. Cross it. Go right to Synge St. Turn left. Shaw Birthplace at #33. (Open May - September, Mon. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Closed 1 - 2 p.m. Closed on Wed. Weekend Hours: 2 to 5 p.m. Admission: $6.50. Phone: 011 35 31 475 0854.)

After the Shaw, go back to corner of Camden and Harrington. On Camden go left about two blocks. Cross to Bleeding Horse Pub at #24 Camden St. Upper. This 1760 pub is mentioned in Ulysses. A stepping stone at the doorway is inscribed with the quote.

At front of pub, find Charlotte Way. Go left on it to Harcourt St. (next light). Cross to the left. Number 61, now the Harcourt Hotel, was Shaw’s last address before he moved to England in 1876. Continuing on Harcourt, #4 on other side near corner is the birthplace of Sir Edward Carson, a politician and the prosecutor in Oscar Wilde’s 1898 trial.

At end of Harcourt, on #61 side, turn right onto St. Stephen’s Green S. Park is on left side. At first light is a building with a sculpted lion above the door. This is Newman House (1738), formerly Catholic University. A plaque states Joyce was a student here (1899 - 1902) and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, a professor of Classics, 1884 - 89. Cross to the park. Inside the gate is a bronze bust of Joyce.

Back on St. Stephen’s Green S., continue to corner. Turn left. This is St. Stephen’s Green E. One block later, cross at light. Continue past Hume St. to end of block. Cross Merrion Row and go right on it. One block later, turn left on Merrion St. Upper. One block later, turn right on Merrion Square S.

Poet, mystic, painter George "A.E." Russell (1867 - 1935) worked in #84. A friend of Joyce’s, he is mentioned in Ulysses. Poet and playwright W.B. Yeats lived at #82 from 1922 - 1928. At #70 lived 19th century novelist Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and, at #58, Daniel O’Connell (1775 - 1847), "The Liberator." 

At end of block, go left on Merrion Sq. E. Follow to Merrion Sq. N. Left again. At end of block, #1 is Oscar Wilde’s childhood home, where the Wildes lived from 1855 - 1878. (Open for 40-minute tours, Mon., Wed., Thurs., 10:15 and 11:15 a.m., Admission: $4. Phone: 011 35 31 662 0281.) Colorful Wilde sculpture in Merrion Sq. across from house.

From Wilde House corner, cross Merrion St. Lower to Clare St. Follow Clare to Lincoln Pl. Cross it and Clare becomes Nassau St. Trinity College is on right. On left side look for Kildare St. and cross over. National Library is on left, near corner A few blocks down, on right, lived Bram Stoker at #30.

Go back to Nassau St. On Trinity side, walk ahead to Grafton St. and cross. On Grafton, pass the Bank of Ireland. Grafton is now Westmoreland. Look for Fleet St. on left. Near the corner, at #21, is the 1843 Palace Bar. Inside this legendary haunt of journalists and writers are many photos, prints and portraits.

Continue on Westmoreland. Cross O’Connell Bridge to Dublin’s north side. Westmoreland is now O’Connell St. Look for O’Connell monument. Facing it, get on right side of street.

Walk one block and go right on Abbey St. Lower. At #26 are Abbey and Peacock Theatres, forming Ireland’s National Theatre. Cross Abbey to the left. On Marlborough St. walk about six blocks to Parnell St. Cross to North Great George’s St. At #35 is the James Joyce Cultural Centre. (Hours: Mon. - Sat. 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sun. 12:30 pm - 5 pm. Admission: $12.50. On Tues., Thurs., and Sat., admission includes a one-to-two hour guided walk at 2 p.m. Phone: 011 35 31 878 8547. Web: www.jamesjoyce.ie)

At end of block, across Great Denmark St., is Belvedere College, Joyce’s high school. Facing school, go left on Great Denmark until it becomes Gardiner Row. Keep going and cross Frederick St. North. Parnell Square is on left, Dublin Writers Museum on right. (Open Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Admission: $8. Phone: 011 35 31 872 2077. Web: www.writersmuseum.com) 
 
 

Irene Woodbury is a writer living in Denver, Colo. She can be reached at RWDenver@aol.com