I have never met a man or a woman from Ireland who couldn't tell a good story. I think language and humor are character traits that are bred into Irish babies every bit as much as their green eyes and red hair. So it's no wonder some of the world's literary giants come from the Emerald Isle. I couldn't be in Dublin without paying homage to some of them in the
Dublin Writers Museum.
What was it like? We were happy to find that the museum was open on New Year's Day, 2006 as many other places about town were not. Admission was less than $5, and we were given headphones to take us on a tour of Ireland's most famous scribes. We put these on and walked into the first room. We found portraits of writers, collections of books and letters, and some other paraphenalia for us to see. We simply typed in the number we saw beside these items to hear a biography about the writer and an explanation of the museum's collection of things. Of course some of the most famous names are represented---James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, W.B. Yeats---but a lot of other writers I did not know were here as well. It was quite interesting to match up the people with the sites we were seeing about town. The museum's rooms themselves with their high ceilings and beautiful detailing would also be interesting for anyone who is interested in architecture. We were here a little more than an hour but you could stay longer if you listened to all the information available. Don't forget to go upstairs.
Any extras? There's a small cafe and gift shop at the museum, but these weren't open because of the holidays.