Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tionalism? You're in. Some of the writers featured by the museum were born in Ireland,
but that's about it—they lived elsewhere, wrote in English, and gained fame for non-Irish
works. One trait they all seem to share is a stubborn streak of personal independence, per-
haps related to Ireland's national struggle to assert its cultural identity. The museum is
housed in a Georgian home, making for an elegant setting to appreciate these pioneering
writers who've left a written record of this verbal people. (For an overview of Irish literat-
Visiting the Museum:
The collection is chronological.
Room 1
starts with Irish lit-
erature's deep roots in the roving, harp-playing
bards
of medieval times. By telling stor-
ies in the native language, they helped unify the island's culture. But “literature” came
onlywiththearrivaloftheEnglishlanguage.
Jonathan Swift
(1667-1745)—Ireland'sfirst
great writer—was born in Dublin and served as dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, though
he spent much of his life in London. His stinging satire of societal hypocrisy set the tone
of rebellion found in much Irish literature. The
theater
has been another longstanding
Irish specialty, starting with the 18th-century playwright Oliver Goldsmith. In the
1890s,
sophisticated Dublin (and Trinity College) was a cradle for great writers who ultimately
found their fortunes in England: the playwright/poet/wit Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker (who
married Wilde's girlfriend), and the bigidea playwright George Bernard Shaw. Poet
W. B.
Yeats
stayed home, cultivating Irish folklore at soirees (hosted by the literary patron Lady
Augusta Gregory) and inspired by his unrequited muse, the feminist Irish revolutionary
Maude Gonne (see her portrait).
Room 2
continues with Yeats'
Abbey Theatre,
the scene of premieres by great Irish
playwrights (including Yeats, Shaw, and Wilde), and a source of political unrest during
the 1916 Easter Uprising. Dublin was also a breeding ground for bold new ideas, produ-
cing Modernist writers Samuel
(Waiting for Godot)
Beckett and James Joyce (his Cul-
tural Centre is described next). As the 20th century progressed, playwrights such as Sean
O'Casey, Brendan Behan, and Brian Friel kept Dublin at the forefront of modern theat-
er. You can read a long letter by terrorist/bad boy Brendan Behan from Hollywood about
schmoozing with Groucho, Harpo, and Sinatra.
Finish your visit by going
upstairs
to see an elegant Georgian library, then peruse the
busts and portraits in the Gallery of Writers.
Aficionados of James Joyce's work (but few others) will want to visit this micro-museum.
Cost and Hours:
€5, Mon-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, closed Mon Oct-March,
two blocks east of the Dublin Writers Museum at 35 North Great George's Street, tel. 01/
878-8547,
www.jamesjoyce.ie
.
