IN IN DUBLIN’S DUBLIN’S

made up to them now. Designated a Unesco City of Literature in 2010, Dublin has festivals and celebrations throughout the year.

The Dublin Writers’ Museum, a beautifully restored Georgian mansion on Parnell Square, is filled with books, letters, portraits and personal belongings of famous scribes. Next door, the Irish Writers’ Centre offers a sanctuary in stately rooms filled with books and art.

There’s a James Joyce Centre in the city, but true Joyce lovers take a half-hour train ride south to Sandycove to visit the stone tower featured in the opening scene of Ulysses, now a Joyce museum. The 19th century Martello tower just reopened after a renovation was one of a series built along the coast to withstand an invasion by Napoleon. Joyce stayed here briefly.

Nearby Sandymount, a pretty seaside town, was the birthplace of Yeats, a giant of 20th century Irish literature and winner in 1923 of the Nobel Prize in literature.

Dublin is home to fabulous old libraries like the one in Trinity College, home to the Book of Kells, a Latin version of the four Gospels written 1200 years ago.

The Chester Beatty Library houses the elaborate collection of the 20th century American mining magnate, including many priceless Islamic and Far Eastern manuscripts and artefacts. And then there Marsh’s Library next to St Patrick’s Cathedral, the oldest public library in Ireland. Built in 1701, it is a beautifully preserved, old-world treasure of dark oak bookcases filled with 25,000 books.

Outside the modern city bustles. Inside, there is just the ticking of an antique grandfather clock, the musty smell of ancient leather and all around, the ghosts

of scholars and writers past.