In its libraries, Dublin’s literary reputation shines

We Dubliners take a lot of pride in our city’s reputation as a literary capital (not least because it lends our loquaciousness a certain gravitas, as if every quip were something more exalted than mere banter). Walk into any genuine pub in town, and you’re bound to see that famous poster of Irish literary heroes on the wall. It’s not idle boastfulness: Dublin can claim four Nobel laureates — George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Moreover, the names Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan, Flann O’Brien and of course James Joyce are synonymous with the town.

So when literary-minded visitors to the Irish capital inquire about suitably bookish activities, there’s plenty to point them toward: literary walking tours, regular poetry and storytelling events, numerous literary festivals and a writers’ museum.

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Libraries of Dublin

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A literary tour of Dublin's famed libraries.

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But for me, Dublin’s long and storied relationship with the book — formally recognized last year when the city was named a UNESCO City of Literature — is most clearly defined by a group of libraries dotted around the city center. It’s in these remarkable buildings, with their miles of shelves and dusty volumes and vast catalogues and air of concentration, that Dublin most shines as a mecca of the written word.

By far the most famous library in the country is the Old Library in Trinity College, with its stunning Long Room. I moved to Dublin in the late 1990s to attend Trinity, a school with a magical campus located smack bang in the middle of the city, full of beautiful old buildings and grand squares, insulated from the traffic that grinds around its walls.

But the Old Library always stood apart: While we bustled in and out of the surrounding buildings, going to lectures, to lunch or back to bed, the Old Library seemed to be chiefly the domain of tourists, lining up to see the treasures inside. It wasn’t until late in my first year that I entered the famous building, and after that my perception of it changed radically. Far from being a mere museum, aloof from the college life around it, it’s the spiritual heart of the place.

The Old Library was built over a span of 20 years in the early 18th century, and the ground floor houses the Book of Kells, the four-volume illuminated Gospel that has been called Ireland’s equivalent of the Sistine Chapel. Dating from around the year 800, it’s the most treasured object in the country. Only two volumes are on display at any time, and there’s often a throng of tourists jostling for a glance through the thick glass, but it’s a thrill to make out the raised, 1,200-year-old ink on the vellum, each stroke applied with painstaking precision by Celtic monks.

Ascending the staircase to the Long Room requires an adjustment in scale, from the detail of the book to the huge space of the library in a few dozen steps. The Long Room is a breathtaking chamber, and entering it is like stepping into a vast cathedral for the worship of the printed word, with row upon row of book-filled alcoves stretching more than 200 feet before you and high up to the spectacular vaulted ceiling. Along each side stands a row of marble busts of great writers, starting with Shakespeare on one side and Homer on the other.