A little northwest of O'Connell Street, Parnell Square spins busses around our Rotunda Hospital. Some Irish poet dude and a few of his mates occupied this building in 1923 and kept the world at bay with rifles for a couple of days; it was a footnote to history, a GPO spin-off for the cause of a red flag. I learned this fact the other day during a visit to The Irish Writers Museum, 18 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.
The museum contains two rooms of exhibits, excerpts, early-edition artifacts and memorabilia from the tales of a small island that has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Visitors can take in the rooms at their own pace or be guided through the history, biographies, topics, and info on an audio cassette system provided when your £2.95 admission is paid. The cassette tour is crap because you can't fast forward past the boring bits. I enjoyed going at my own pace and focusing on the material I had interest in. Did you know that Samuel Beckett would become physically ill upon returning to his native land? Or that Bram Stoker's real first name was Abraham, and that Dracula, the most famous of his many Gothic-style books, was lifted from an earlier Irish author? These were interesting people with much suffering and beautiful true words.
On the poshly restored first floor is a library, a portrait gallery, and a doorway onto the fire escape where one could find a cool breeze, peace and quiet, and a view over back walls and alleys a Hail Mary pass away. There was an elegant little coffee shop and of course a bookstore. The Irish Writing Center, a busy resource for those currently living lives with that fire in them, is accessable down a back corridor. A most interesting place, dedicated to giving due to folks (some of them real punks) who lived life with purpose, vision, and voice--- highly recommended by Yours Truly.
- Added to the DFA Guide, July 1998.
Guide Index Red words? Check the Dub Glossary!