Writers, Painters, Rebels – A Walking Tour of Artistic Dublin

In just a small part of Dublin city, are deep connections to the lives and works of three major international writers, as well as other poets, painters and rebels.

Writer Eamon Delaney takes us on a walking tour of Westland Row, and north Merrion Square and talks about these fascinating links. We learn about life from 1890 to 1930, the path to Irish independence and the origins of great works of art.

There will be readings throughout. We begin on Clare Street where the young Samuel Beckett (below) lived and wrote his first novel.

We move to the former Finns Hotel, where James Joyce first encountered the love of his life Nora Barnacle on 16 June 1904, a date he later immortalised in his novel Ulysses. We proceed to Westland Row to visit locations from Ulysses such as Swenys Chemist where the novel’s main character Leopold Bloom buys soap, and St Andrew’s Church, which he visits.

We retrace Bloom’s steps via Brunswick Street, now Pearse street and renamed for Padraic Pearse, the 1916 Rebel and poet who lived nearby, with his family. Padraic and his brother Willie were executed after the Easter Rising. We see the houses where Oscar Wilde (below) lived and hear about his life and work.

On the way, we pass Oriel House, the notorious interrogation centre during the Irish Civil War. This was the conflict which followed the Easter Rising, and the War of Independence.

Across the road, we see the reminder of another bitter conflict : the Moyne Institute in Trinity, named after the Anglo Irish diplomat assasinated in Cairo by hardline Zionists to prevent a settlement in Palestine.

We go along Merrion Square, and pass the home of Mary Swanzy, famous in artistic Paris for her modernist paintings (example below). Paris is a common theme on this tour and was very influential in the work of Beckett, Joyce, Wilde and Swanzy.

Finally, we proceed to Holles Street Maternity Hospital, and the setting for possibly the most difficult scene in Ulysses – the Oxen of the Sun chapter. But it is also one of the most entertaining, being composed of a mish mash of different English styles – romantic, Middle English and American slang – which Eamon will read from.

We then return to Westland Row via Denzille Lane, retracing ths steps of the characters from this scene. En route we encounter more locations, before adjourning for lunch and further discussion!

Pictured above : the painter, Mary Swanzy.

This next tour is on Saturday, 25 May at 11.00 am and will re-occur on other dates. Private tours can also be arranged, via email below.

Assembly point for the tour will be outside the National Gallery entrance on Clare Street (not the Merrion Square entrance). Duration is about 90 minutes and the price is 15 euro.

Contact eamondelaney2@gmail.com to book a place, or call 087 9465974 .

Payment in cash on the day, or via PayPal here :
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/EamonDDelaney