25-Aug-2026
The last time we were in Dublin, it was New Year's Eve. When 1995 was tipping over into 1996. Thirty years ago...
Christ Church, where we saw the New Year in back then
We're currently staying in Gorey, and have made two trips up to the capital. It's not difficult. You can buy your ticket on line, and providing you choose the right train, you can reserve a seat. It's two hours either way, but it's a very scenic route (sit on the seaward side, if you can), and the seats are comfortable. Listen to your audio-book (preferably something Irish), and you'll find the time slips by.
This is Bray, which we need to visit properly another time. It was home for a while to the young James Joyce (he lived on Martello Terrace, the name unsurprising once you've seen all the Martello Towers to be found along this stretch of coast), and in the 1930s, Bray hosted Joyce's daughter, Lucia. She described it as "a magnificent place, full of flowers", but her stay seemed to end badly, when she tried to set fire to her aunt's house
Some of the jolly murals at Bray station
Other scenes en route
Connolly Station, the end of the line. Pearce is handier for the south bank sights
The first expedition was designed to be literary. But actually, both trips turned out to be literary. There's no getting away from literature in Dublin...
It's not long before you're encountering James Joyce
Except he's largely being ignored in favour of some mirror thing...
Definitely worth visiting is the James Joyce Centre, one of the very elegant houses in N. Great George's Street. Joyce never actually lived at No. 35, but has a connection via Prof Denis J. Maginni, who ran a dance academy here, and makes several appearances in Ulysses
The dancing figures date from Maginni's time
This furniture comes from the Paris apartment of Paul Leon, a close friend and collaborator of Joyce's. At this very table, for three hours every Thursday afternoon, Leon and others worked on the translation of Finnegans Wake, "while Joyce sat and smoked in one of the armchairs". Leon died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942
Another reminder of Lucia
And she it was who provided the initial capitals for the 1937 Corvinus Press edition of Storiella as She Is Syung, which eventually became part of Finnegans Wake. The text that's cut off here goes like this: "As we there are where are we are we there from tomtittot to teetootomtotalitarian. Tea tea too oo." This is why I have not yet dared tackle this tea tea tome, and will need lots of help when I do...
The original door of No. 7 Eccles Street, which (in Ulysses) is the address of Leopold and Molly Bloom
This mural by Paul Joyce, great-grandnephew of the writer, depicts 18 episodes from Ulysses, each sequence employing a different style, to reflect the way Joyce wrote the book
Then on to the Oscar Wilde House, No. 1 Merrion Square North. The family moved in here in 1855, when Oscar was just eight months old
And this is how it would have looked back in the day
Oscar's mother, Lady Jane Wilde, aka Speranza, was herself a poet, writer, and translator. This room, named after her, overlooks Merrion Square, and would have hosted anyone who was anyone during her Saturday salons
Bust of Oscar Wilde by Melanie le Brocquy
Oscar's bedroom, on the top floor
What a roofscape... How could anyone not be inspired by so many chimney pots...?
The original Irish oak floorboards are still in situ throughout the building. So you're literally treading where the famous trod...
The whole of Merrion Square is a who's who of literary references. Here's the home of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, creator of Carmilla, my favourite vampire
And here's W.B. Yeats
Not far away is Trinity College, as portrayed, for example, in Sally Rooney's Normal People, or David Nicholls's Us
Even when you're not looking for them, there are literary associations. This scene, for example, looks as though it came straight out of The Third Policeman...
BUT... BUT... We did do some other stuff. A bit...
Shiveringly poignant is Rowan Gillespie's Famine Memorial, which depicts starving Irish people of the 1840s/50s, desperately trying to stay alive long enough to board the ships they hoped would take them to a better life. While 1.5 million died, and another 1 million emigrated, food was still being shipped OUT of Ireland...
There's another memorial to the same tragedy at St Stephen's Green. This one is by Edward Delaney
The National Gallery is very good (and free). We just visited the Yeats bit. Contrary to my imaginings, this features not John B. Yeats, father of W.B., but rather Jack B. Yeats, brother of same (and I'm sure neither of them would be thrilled to be thus designated). It's very striking stuff. This one is entitled About To Write a Letter
And this is No Flowers
There are plenty of other objects of interest, if you have a little more time
And, of course, we did cafes:
Handily close to Connolly Station is the Roasted Bean Coffee Company. We really liked this place. The coffee is nice, and the staff just lovely
Shoe Lane Coffee. Serves Ivorian chocolate...
Cafe Tri Via. A reasonably priced and delicious sausage sandwich can be obtained here
Industry & Co, a trendy cafe/shop combo. Nice spinach pastries
We hit Powerscourt Townhouse bang on lunchtime, when it was packed. So we moved on. But according to my diary, we did come here 30 years ago, when I really rated the cappuccini... It's an interesting building, a classical house that's been imaginatively converted into a complex of shops, cafes, courtyards, and balconies
All in all, Dublin is hugely impressive. Yes, there are lots of tourists, but you can, with some judicious timing, stay mainly out of their way. Yes, it's expensive, particularly in terms of accommodation, but you can stay further afield, and commute in on those excellent trains, as we did.
Would definitely return for some more little pecks.