Dublin Literary Walks: Joyce, Yeats and the City They Wrote

Dublin is a small capital with an outsized literary memory: four Nobel laureates, the world's only UNESCO City of Literature, and pubs where the writers still feel like regulars who've just stepped out. A two-day literary walk reveals a Dublin no tour bus quite captures.

Day 1 — Joyce's Dublin

Start at the James Joyce Centre on North Great George's Street for a one-hour orientation. Walk south down O'Connell Street and across the Liffey to Sweny's Pharmacy on Lincoln Place — where Bloom buys lemon soap in Ulysses, and where volunteers still read Joyce aloud daily. Lunch at Davy Byrnes — the 'moral pub' from the Lestrygonians chapter; order the gorgonzola sandwich and burgundy.

Afternoon: Trinity College and the Long Room

Trinity College's Long Room library is one of the world's most beautiful rooms. Book the Book of Kells slot in advance. Walk through the cobblestone squares — Beckett studied here. Continue to Merrion Square for the Oscar Wilde statue and his childhood home.

Evening at the pub

The Long Hall on South Great George's Street for Victorian atmosphere. Mulligan's on Poolbeg Street — Joyce drank here. Grogan's for the artists' bar. Conversation is the entertainment — Dublin pubs frown on televised sport in the front bar.

Day 2 — Yeats, Beckett and the modern

Morning at the National Library on Kildare Street — the Yeats exhibition is exceptional. Cross to the National Museum of Ireland on the same square for archaeological context. Lunch at The Winding Stair upstairs from the bookshop of the same name — Liffey views and modern Irish food.

Afternoon: Glasnevin Cemetery

Take the bus to Glasnevin — the Père-Lachaise of Dublin. Tours run twice daily; you'll see the graves of de Valera, Collins, Parnell, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Pair it with the adjacent Botanic Gardens.

Evening: the theatre and after

Book a play at the Abbey Theatre — founded by Yeats and Lady Gregory — or the smaller Gate. Late drink at the Palace Bar on Fleet Street, where journalists and writers still drink.

Bookshops worth a detour

Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street (the city's oldest, opened 1768), The Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar, and Books Upstairs on D'Olier Street for poetry and small presses.

Bloomsday — if your timing aligns

16 June. The city dresses in Edwardian costume and walks the route of Leopold Bloom from Ulysses. Even non-readers are converted within an afternoon.

Your Dublin dossier

A TravelTiger Dublin dossier weaves the literary walks with the food scene's quiet renaissance, day trips to the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough, and the best traditional music sessions in the Liberties.