Books and Buildings:
Victorian and Edwardian Literature and Architecture in Dublin
Dublin, if you do not know it, is a wonderful city where the country’s literati and architects have created a unique place in which their memory is constantly evoked.
This tour begins at MoLI, the Museum of Literature, Ireland, where many writers, including Bram Stoker, William Butler Yates, George Bernard Shaw, and James Joyce are celebrated and where you can enjoy Irish stew and soda bread and explore the bookshop.
Like Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus did in Ulysses, on 16th June 1904, we will cross and cross again the city, from John Hungerford Pollen’s extraordinary basilican church on St Stephen’s Green to Deane and Woodward’s magnificent Museum at Trinity College (pictured), and from George Edmund Street’s recast Christ Church Cathedral to Edward Welby Pugin and George Ashlin’s stunning church of St Augustine and St John the Baptist on Thomas Street, known locally as John’s Lane church.
Should your legs be tired and your feet sore, you can sample what is reputedly the best Guinness in Dublin in Mulligan’s on Poolbeg Street, where James Joyce was said to drink and where he set the arm-wrestling scene in Counterparts (from the 1914 collection Dubliners) or in the beautifully panelled Palace Bar on Fleet Street, the journalist’s pub where our Society’s founding member, John Betjeman, wet his whistle while working as the British press attaché and maybe even, as the IRA suspected, a spy, during the Second World War.
Tour leaders June Lawrence, who leads the Victorian Society Short Story Reading Group, will focus on the literature and the writers which characterise Dublin, while Neil Jackson, a Trustee of the Victorian Society, will address the city’s architecture.
Timetable
Members should first meet on the south side of St Stephen’s Green, outside MoLI, the Museum of Literature, Ireland, at 14.00 on Friday 5 June. Members are encouraged to see the museum before the tour starts, since it is not included in the programme proper, and to visit the basement restaurant (also accessible from the pavement outside) and the bookshop. The tour will end at about 16.00 on Sunday 7 June at the church of St Augustine and St John the Baptist on Thomas Street.
Accommodation
Members are requested to make their own accommodation arrangements. The recommended hotel, which will serve as a base and a starting point for the Saturday and Sunday walking tours, is the Travelodge Dublin City Centre on Townsend Street and Moss Street.
Travel
Members are requested to make their own travel arrangements to Dublin. If arriving by air, Dublin Express runs a frequent bus service from Dublin Airport to the city centre for €10 each way. Tickets can be purchased either at the airport on arrival or in advance online.
Meals
Only one meal is included with the tour. This is the optional Friday evening group dinner at the famous Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen’s Green. This is a fixed-price three course meal for which a vegetarian menu is available. Extra side dishes and wine are not included in the price.
Tour notes
Comprehensive tour notes will be provided as hard copies on arrival and will also be available in digital format before departure.
Cost
The tour is being offered with a two-tier price structure:
Full tour inc. the group dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel on the first evening: £340.
Full tour but without the group dinner: £270.
Disclaimer
You participate in events at your own risk, and neither the Society nor its officers or servants accept any liability of any kind whatsoever, howsoever arising. The Victorian Society reserves the right to cancel, alter or postpone events if necessary.