Celebrating literary Dublin

It’s the history. It’s the love of words. It’s Joyce in his tower and Wilde in Merrion Square. It’s the walls of the Duke, decorated with the faces of thirsty dead writers, staring at us as we sink one more before the Nitelink takes us home. It’s Davy Byrne’s on Bloomsday. It’s the bookshops on Dawson Street, the students reading second-hand novels in Fellows’ Square. It’s the New Writing pages in the Tribune, the literary supplement in The Irish Times. It’s the Edmund Burke theatre at Trinity College, visiting writers reading short stories to an audience gathered on the stairs. It’s seeing ol’ Pat outside the Bank of Ireland on College Green, selling his poems for whatever you’ll give him. It’s the buskers singing One on Grafton Street while travelling children screech about what happened by lonely prison walls. It’s a city of literature, of course it is. It’s Dublin.
John Boyne explains why he thinks that Dublin is a city of literature.

Together with Edinburgh, Iowa City and Melbourne, Dublin has been designated one of four UNESCO Cities of Literature. UNESCO's Creative Cities Network promote the social, economic and cultural development of cities throughout the world. They celebrate the Arts such as literature, film, music, crafts, design, media art and gastronomy.

For a wealth of upcoming activities, see the event guide here.