Ireland’s legacy, aside from Guinness and those charming accents, may come down to the number of successful wordsmiths it has churned out over the years. Named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2010, Dublin has served as the birthplace, home and inspiration for many revered poets, playwrights and novelists of the past three centuries: Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, John Keats, William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, and Jonathan Swift, just to name a few.
The capital of Dublin has inspired some of the greatest literature of the English language. Join any one of our Dublin tours, and follow the footsteps of Ireland’s greatest authors through the streets of this literary epicentre, learning about the history and the setting of such timeless works as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and “A Modest Proposal,” while taking in the scenery of the beautiful Emerald Isle.
Also included in our walking tours of Dublin is a stop in Parnell Square, a famous and picturesque point of town rich with history and culture. The oldest of Dublin’s Georgian squares, Parnell Square is the starting point of many of Dublin’s oldest and most significant cultural processions and home to many historical landmarks. This includes the Garden of Remembrance, which commemorates the 1916 Easter Rising that eventually led to the formation of the Irish State and which inspired the Yeats Poem Easter, 1916.
For an extra treat, a trip to Dublin in the late spring will drop you right into the world of one of the most renowned novels of our time. Bloomsday is a holiday to commemorate the life and work of James Joyce on June 16, the date during which the events of Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness Ulysses take place. Named after the novel’s protagonist, Leopold Bloom, Bloomsday invites tourists and residents alike to follow Bloom’s path across Dublin for the day.
Yet no matter where you go in the city, the ghosts of writers past are never very far. You might walk the same cobblestones as Beckett, eat in a pub frequented by Joyce, or see Wilde’s mocking smile in Merrion Square. The literary trails of Dublin never end.
Want to plan a trip to Dublin? Let us help!