An Irish writing professor's seven-stop literary crawl of Dublin

Dublin, with its mad pubs and massive St Patrick's Day parade, is beloved for its craic (revelry) – and revered for its illustrious literary heritage. This ancient yet tiny city (with a city area of just 114.99 sq m) has produced a staggering amount of the Anglophone world's most important writers, poets and playwrights – ranging from Jonathan Swift to novelist and screenwriter Sally Rooney – who have used the city as both inspiration and literary backdrop.

Professor Christopher Morash was raised in Nova Scotia and arrived in Dublin to do a course in Irish literature, intending to stay for just one year. That was in 1985. Morash has spent the intervening years lecturing in Irish letters in Ireland and is now the Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin. He is the author of several books on Irish literature.

We asked Christopher Morash, the Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin, to take us on an Irish literature crawl in a city bursting with literary cache.

"Dublin was one of the very first Unesco cities of literature," said Morash, whose book Dublin: A Writer's City serves as a map for book lovers. "It's the sheer number of writers who have not just lived here but engaged with the city. [James] Joyce doesn't just come from Dublin; he writes Dublin. It's a living tradition of having writers, whether it's contemporary writers like Sally Rooney or Paul Lynch or Paul Murray who are writing about the city today, and then new writers coming in on their heels as well."

Pocket-sized Dublin charms with its swan-filled canals and grand Georgian homes crowned by colourful doors, but Morash sees the ghosts of Irish literature past. "There are streets you can go down," he said. "And it's like, well, that appears in Ulysses, you know, that's where [Oscar] Wilde lived. That's where a contemporary poet set a particular poem. So, there's a real richness to the literary culture here."

Here are Professor Christopher Morash's favourite literary spots in Dublin.

"Where would I start?" said Morash. "I'd probably start with a pint."

But where precisely, in a city littered with options? Morash favours McDaid's on Harry Street, one of Dublin's splendid Victorian-era pubs. "I think there is a period in Dublin literary culture that is centred around pubs," said Morash. "You go in [to McDaid's] today and there are still portraits of the writers on the wall… but otherwise the pub is exactly more or less as it was in the 1930s and 40s."

McDaid's started its life as the Dublin City Morgue and was converted into, first, a Moravian Brethren chapel, then a grocer, tea and wine merchant before becoming a pub. Since then, it has counted Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and the cartoonist Flann Ó Riain among the literary luminaries who regularly pulled up a stool. But visiting Dublin's literary pubs isn't simply about having a quaff: "You have to be able to talk, you know?" said Morash. "Dublin is a talker's city still." Case in point: there's no music at McDaid's, just the sound of alcohol and (maybe) brilliant ideas flowing. "It has to be a pint of Guinness," said Morash. "In Dublin, a pint means Guinness."

"I never turned to drink. It seemed to turn to me." - Brendan Behan

2. Best for getting your bearings: The Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI)

There are almost as many literary landmarks in Dublin as there are literary pubs, so Morash recommends that literature lovers get their bearings with a reconnaissance stop at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) just off the verdant St Stephen's Green Park. "[It] opened not that long ago," said Morash of the multi-media museum experience which launched in 2019. "But it gives you a sense of the sheer number of writers that have been involved with the city."

According to Morash, May is one of the best times for literature buffs to visit Dublin. "[That's when] the International Literary Festival is on," he said. "You get writers doing talks, readings, interviews, conversations." 

Alternatively, catch the Dublin Theatre Festival in September. "Dublin is also a city that really punches above its weight in terms of the number of major playwrights who've come from here," said Morash. "There's a reason people like Cillian Murphy are winning prizes in film; they're coming out of a theatre scene that's really, really rich."

MoLI hosts talks, book launches and readings, as well as frequently revolving exhibitions. The current Ink & Imagination displays letters and manuscripts from illustrious Irish writers like Edna O'Brien, Maeve Binchy and James Joyce, while today's working Irish writers can apply to use the museum's Writers Room; a light-drenched Georgian studio perfect for a tranquil writing retreat. "And the house that the building is in, Newman House, was where John Henry Newman was," said Morash. "[He] was the founder of what was then the National University of Ireland. So, it has historical associations as well."

Phil Behan/Alamy Stock Photo Trinity College Dublin counts Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde among its alumni, as well as many contemporary Irish writers (Credit: Phil Behan/Alamy Stock Photo)Phil Behan/Alamy Stock Photo

Trinity College Dublin counts Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde among its alumni, as well as many contemporary Irish writers (Credit: Phil Behan/Alamy Stock Photo)

Just a few minutes' from McDaid's lies the walled campus of Trinity College Dublin with its iconic wooden gate. Founded in 1592, the university is the alma mater of scores of Irish literary figures including Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde, whose birthplace on 21 Westland Row now houses the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College Dublin's School of English. Despite its pedigree, the grass-and-cobblestone campus is perhaps most famous for its mesmerising Old Library, home to the Book of Kells. But Morash, who served as the university's vice provost for three years, gravitates towards the Graduate Memorial Building. "It's home to the College Historical Society, the oldest debating society in the world," said Morash. "It was founded by Edmund Burke, and members over the years have included Bram Stoker who was the auditor. Oscar Wilde was involved with the society." 

The College Historical Society still attracts Irish writers like Sally Rooney, who was a champion debater before authoring Normal People and Conversations with Friends, and Paul Murray, whose 2023 Booker shortlisted novel The Bee Sting follows characters who participate in the society's debates. "So, there is a place you can go from Edmund Burke to Sally Rooney and Paul Murray in the same space," said Morash.

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught." – Oscar Wilde

4. Best for stepping into the plot: Sweny's Pharmacy

In Chapter 5 of James Joyce's Ulysses, Leopold Bloom wanders into a chemist's shop to linger over rows of inviting lotions and potions before buying his wife, Molly Bloom, a bar of lemon soap. The shop was Sweny's Pharmacy, on Westland Row – a short distance from the spot where a young James Joyce met his future wife, Nora Barnacle, in 1904.

The Next Great Irish Writer

To find the next great Irish writer, Morash suggests dropping by an open mic. There are numerous ones on in the city, like The Circle Sessions at The International Bar, but Morash personally recommends the Irish Writers' Centre at 19 Parnell Square. "It always has something going on," he said. "It has a regular Friday night open mic. If you want to find out what the next generation of writers is going to be, you go to something like that, open mic poetry night. It also regularly has book launches on."

Morash stumbled upon the shop himself within the first half hour of his first day in Dublin. "Westland Row is not a particularly attractive street," he said. "There's a rail line that runs over it. There's a lot of traffic on it, the buildings are not architecturally distinguished… and then I went looking for aspirin because I had a headache after the flight. And there was a chemist shop at the end of the street. So, I walk up and it's Sweny's. I thought, 'This is familiar!'"

Sweny's has become a volunteer-run bookshop in the years since Joyce used it as a setting in his masterpiece. "They do talks and cultural tours and things like that from there," said Morash. "But at the time, it was it still an actual chemist's shop."

5. Best for learning about Dublin's Nobel Laureates in Literature: The Bank of Ireland and the National Library of Ireland

The next stop on Morash's Irish Literature crawl is the Bank of Ireland. "That's the old Parliament building from the 18th Century," said Morash. "And there is a wonderful exhibition in there on Seamus Heaney called Listen Now Again." The exhibition of the poet's manuscripts, drafts and diaries is affiliated with The National Library of Ireland, which has the largest collection of Heaney manuscripts in the world. "The Heaney family were very involved after Seamus died," said Morash, who once found himself admiring the exhibit alongside Heaney's brother. "And it is very, very moving if you want an insight into Heaney's poetry."

Morash also recommends visiting the library itself. "There is a free permanent William Butler Yeats exhibition," he said. "And what you really get from that, that most people will not know no matter how much they think they know Yeats, is that as well as being a poet and one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre, Yeats was a practicing magician."

A magician? Yeats? "I don't mean the pull-rabbits-out-of-hats kind," explained Morash. "I mean a talk to spirits-communicate-with-other-beings magician. There are his magical notebooks and his tarot cards and objects he used in rituals. Have a look at this exhibition and you will see a completely different Yeats." 

"Poetry is what we do to break bread with the dead." – Seamus Heaney

6. Best historic bookshop (and best for crashing a book launch): Hodges Figgis

Morash's next literary Dublin pick is also just a few paces away from the last. "It's that proximity, that tightness, everything is on top of each other in the centre," he said. "You're right around the corner from the third oldest bookshop in the world, Hodges Figgis."

Celebrating St Patrick's Day

"I think what makes Dublin special on St Patrick's Day is that you have a city of talkers," said Morash. "The parade's become kind of a theatrical thing but I think the parade's kind of beside the point. The real thing with St Patrick's Day is meeting people." Morash's chatty pub picks? "Any of the older city centre pubs, like The Palace Bar. There's a lovely pub I like called The Confession Box on Marlborough Street. Kennedy's here on Westland Row. It's gonna be lively. There's gonna be conversation. There's gonna be stuff happening."

Hodges Figgis was founded in 1768 on 10 Skinner's Row before moving to its current Dawson Street location in the early 19th Century, immediately recognisable by its bright green storefront. The classic bookshop sells stationery and games as well as books by local and international writers and has become a centre for the city's literary life.

"If you're there on an evening, chances are there's a book launch going on," said Morash. "And while book launches are theoretically by invitation in Dublin, they're practically not. There's a book launch going on, if you kind of go in and buy a book and look knowledgeable, chances are, you'll end up with a glass of wine in your hand and you can be part of the book launch. And that's always a nice thing to do."

"Everyone has a story to tell. All you have to do is write it! But it's not that easy." – Frank McCourt

7. Best for making like Joyce and heading to the sea: Martello Tower in Sandycove

James Joyce loved immortalising his city in prose, but sometimes, even he had to get out of dodge. The charming towns dotting the craggy Irish coastline are a popular refuge for Dubliners, particularly Sandycove, the small coastal resort where Joyce spent six nights in 1904 in a 19th-Century Martello tower. "You could very easily hop on a DART local train and go out to Sandycove to Joyce's Martello tower," said Morash. "The opening of Ulysses takes place [there]. And the Martello tower is now kind of a Joyce museum."

Sleepy seaside Sandycove is a 22-minute train ride from Dublin's city centre, and the museum – which displays a collection of the author's personal artefacts – has become a pilgrimage site for Joyce enthusiasts, particularly on Bloomsday (16 June). "To go in there and read the opening chapter of Ulysses is a pretty amazing thing to do," said Morash.

Joyce was far from the only Irish author with ties to the Irish seaside. "Maeve Binchy lived most of her life just down the coast in Dalkey," said Morash. "She had a room just kind of looking over the water there. And George Bernard Shaw lived in Dalkey for a while. And of course, where Seamus Heaney lived was Sandymount which is a little bit closer to the city but right along that same line."

-bbc