Dublin has long established itself as a tourist destination. And not only because of the flights of the famous low cost company. In reality, there are plenty of reasons to land in the big city of Ireland. There are those who fly to discover a heritage where history and tradition coexist. Something you feel when crossing the Ha'Penny Brigde, when taking a photo with the sculpture of Molly Malone in front of the old church of Saint Andrews, or when taking a guided tour of factories as charismatic as the Guinness brewery.
Furthermore, a past full of struggle and calamity is discovered. Like the famines that caused millions of Irish to emigrate, a drama evoked in the Famine Memorial. While the old Kilmainham prison remembers the heroes of independence. Although not everything is tragedy. There is also nightlife, especially in the Temple Bar area. Although, it is perhaps the most expensive and uncomfortable place to enjoy a pint and live music. Throughout the city you can find the same thing, but more authentic and cheaper.
There is yet another reason to embark on this journey. Any tourist guide invites you to follow the trail of famous writers. In few places in the world is there such an intense relationship between literature and tourism, just as there are few places where letters emerge in such a superb way. In a relatively small country, up to four Nobel Prize winners in Literature have been born: William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.
There is a mark on everyone in the capital. Yeats is remembered as the promoter of the prestigious The Abbey Theater stage. From Shaw we visit his birthplace on Synge Steet. And at Trinity College they brag about Beckett's graduation. While the immersive exhibition Seamus Heany: Listen now again will remain at the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Center until December 2025.
The curious thing is that a large part of the tourists who want to soak up literary genius do not have these signatures in mind. Many more visit St. Patrick's Cathedral and the tomb of its most famous dean, Jonathan Swift, the satirical author of Gulliver's Travels. And there are also visitors who come to the neighboring Marsh Library, which Swift frequented in search of culture and the warmth of his fireplace. A library that many decades later a young Bram Stoker, also from Dublin, visited to consult some maps of Transylvania, perhaps germinating his future work: Dracula.
Even more travelers come to Merrion Square Park to have their portrait taken with the dandy Oscar Wilde. An author not always praised by his countrymen. Rather he was a shame for his free and wasteful life. However, now he is strongly vindicated and guided tours are made to places linked to his life such as The Gaiety Theater where he read from his texts or the Shelbourne Hotel where he squandered a fortune. They are itineraries called Walk on the Wilde side and begin at the current American College, the author's birthplace.
On the other hand, the city has opened a spectacular Museum of Literature, MoLI. Located precisely where James Joyce, Dublin author par excellence, studied. His figure is omnipresent. He appears in establishments he mentioned in his books such as Sweny's Pharmacy or in places he frequented such as Davy Byrnes Pub. By the way, a place neighboring the Duke Pub that also boasts of having had a very literary clientele that included authors such as Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh.
Wherever you look, literary quotes emerge. Not only in Dublin. All over the island. Going west, the town of Sligo appears, revered by Yeats. He was the first Irish Nobel Prize winner, although his merit goes further. Perhaps he is the most beloved and his verses are recited by children at school, just as Sinead O'Connor, Colin Farrell, Neil Jordan and Bob Geldof have recorded them in other formats. Much of his work is inspired by Sligo and its surroundings such as Benbullen Mountain, Rosses Beach or Glencar Falls. Magical environments that Yeats transferred to paper in order to multiply the nationalist spirit. That is why his tomb in Drumcliffe church continues to be a destination for pilgrimages.
If Yeats was the first Nobel Prize winner, the last winner in 1995 was Seamus Heaney. And of course now it is cultural and tourist heritage. Especially in the town of Bellaghy in Northern Ireland where he grew up, found inspiration and was buried in 2013. So there could not be a better place to build the Seamus Heaney Homeplace, where a suggestive audiovisual montage allows, among other things, to enjoy his poems with your own voice.
Heaney taught at Queen's University in the capital of Northern Ireland. And Belfast pays more than one tribute to the writer. As with others linked to the city. Among them stands out C.S. Lewis, author of the successful Chronicles of Narnia saga. Homage is paid to that world of illusion in the library of Queen's University or in the C.S. Lewis Square where a walk among the fanciful creatures of his stories is proposed. This is how it is possible to escape to the Morne Mountains, located to the south of the city. There you can breathe the same atmosphere that triggered Lewis's inventiveness. On these paths and in any corner of the island, all you have to do is turn the knob of your imagination to let yourself be seduced by the world of Irish literature and legends.
