Roland
and I just got back from a tour of Ireland. It was supposed to be more of an
overview rather than following a particular theme, but it turned out to have a
number of literary connections.
Dublin
was full of them. Our first day there, we walked almost to the Samuel Becket
Bridge on our way to EPIC, the emigration museum. While there, we noticed a
display with a query about C.S. Lewis. Most people think of him an Englishman
because he spent most of his life in England, but he was born in Ireland and
spent his early childhood there.
These
two photos show the Samuel Becket Bridge and the C.S. Lewis display.
On
our second day in Dublin, we visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Jonathan Swift,
the author of Gulliver’s Travels, was the dean there for many years. In
those days, it was popular (among those who could afford it) to make a death
mask to remember the deceased by, and Jonathan Swift’s death mask is kept in
the cathedral. That’s it at the head of this post. We also learned that people
tended to fall asleep during his sermons, so he had someone build him a mobile
pulpit that he could use while walking around among his congregation.
James
Joyce is Dublin’s favorite son. His novel Ulysses follows his hero
through an ordinary day in Dublin, and his short story collection Dubliners
also shows his love for the city. While I don’t have a photo about him
specifically, the next one shows a typical street in the city he loved.
The
entire country claims William Butler Yeats, but he considered County Sligo to
be his childhood home. The next photo is from that area and shows the scenery
that he might have grown up with.
When
we got to Belfast, we learned that Anthony Trollope had written his early
novels while working for the Irish postal service, and part of that time he was
headquartered in Belfast’s customs building. That building is the final photo.
So
as you can see, our tour of Ireland turned out to be a literary journey after
all.
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