Bookmark Dublin for a lively literary break
With an illustrious literary legacy and a love of language evident in the very fabric of the city, Dublin is the perfect book-lover’s destination.
Readers Garden, Museum of Literature, Ireland Dublin City.
The new ‘travel gets lit’ trend is reinvigorating the idea of travelling to places featured in novels, building trips around book festivals, or visiting places associated with great writers.
But Dublin, a UNESCO City of Literature, has always been a magnet for connoisseurs of the written word. Not only has it produced four Nobel laureates (Shaw, Yeats, Beckett and Heaney) and the towering figures of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, it also has wonderful ancient manuscripts, excellent museums of literature, and a lively contemporary scene that includes numerous book-related festivals, events and entertaining walking tours.
Among the city’s literary highlights is The Book of Kells, one of Ireland’s great cultural treasures. The Book of Kells Experience offers the chance to view the ninth-century manuscript in the Old Library at Trinity College, followed by a 360° immersive journey through a digital exhibition inspired by the book and the library’s precious collections.
Another top spot for book worms is the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), a world-class museum tracing Ireland’s literary heritage from early storytelling traditions to modern-day writers. At the other end of the scale is the Little Museum of Dublin, a pop-up museum that offers 29-minute guided tours packed with great storytelling, history and comedy.
2022 Bloomsday, Davy Byrnes, Dublin City
An entertaining way to get a flavour of Dublin writers and their work is on the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, where actors bring to life the stories of Joyce, Beckett, Wilde and others as they walk through the city streets stopping at four watering holes along the way.
In fact, there are a number of Dublin pubs with literary connections including Davy Byrne’s which featured in Joyce’s novel Ulyssess, Kennedy’s where Oscar Wilde, Joyce and Beckett all enjoyed a drink, and The Brazen Head, Dublin’s oldest pub which counted Jonathan Swift among its patrons.
Other literary landmarks in the city include Oscar Wilde’s birthplace, St. Patrick’s Cathedral where Jonathan Swift was Dean, and Marsh’s Library where Bram Stoker studied. And here and there in the city you will come across Talking Statues which present the opportunity to hear from some of Dublin’s most famous sons.
James Joyce Centre, North Great George's St, Rotunda, Dublin City.
For a deeper dive into the lives and work of Dublin’s great writers, you can visit the James Joyce Centre, view the Yeats Exhibition at the National Library of Ireland or browse the Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again exhibition in the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre.
Dublin also has some great bookshops including Hodges Figgis – booksellers since 1768, Chapters, The Gutter Bookshop and Ulysses Rare Books.
There are first-rate literary festivals in the city too. In May, the International Literature Festival Dublin brings together the finest writers to take part in readings, conversations, debates, podcasts and broadcasts in a wide-ranging programme of events.
And in June the world-famous Bloomsday festival celebrates Joyce’s remarkable novel Ulysses over six days of events that bring to life the characters and ideas in the masterpiece.