DUBLIN is a city steeped in literary culture – and pubs. There are pubs that Oscar Wilde drank in, pubs that Bram Stoker, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw drank in – and of course the ones that Brendan Behan drank in, which covered practically the entire 850 that scatter the streets of the inner city.
To find the literary culture you could travel the Behan way, or, on the other hand, pay your $20 and join a pair of experienced Irish actors on the Dublin Literary Pub crawl and, with intermittent pints of Guinness, find out more about the literary life of this great Georgian city.
That was the way my wife and I went- on the fascinating two and a half hour stroll through the streets of the city, soaking in the atmosphere and the history.
First let’s get one thing straight, the phrase “pub crawl” does not have the meaning it might mean in Australia. There is more talking than drinking, so it’s not one long night of downing pints of Guinness, more a chance to sample the local drop in various, historic locations.
It was a cool September evening and the streets were drying after a few days of liquid sunshine when we set off.
We were instructed to meet “upstairs at The Duke” a darkly wooded pup just around the corner from the fabulous Westbury Hotel in fashionable Grafton Street where we were staying.
We climbed a set of rickety stairs to the small upstairs room where 20 or so fellow travellers were paying over their euros to Colm Quilligan, the man behind the tours, and ordering the first Guinness of the night.
That is an experience in itself. There’s no quick way to fill a glass. The thick, black, creamy liquid take time to settle, so you order two glasses, they get filled together, each waiting for the froth to settle before being topped up. It’s no drink for a thirsty person, but definitely one for the discerning.
Colm was also selling copies of his excellent book, Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, which is the definitive guide to the pubs of Dublin and the writers who frequented them. I grabbed my copy and found it fascinating reading as well as enlightening.
Around 7.30 we were introduced to our hosts for the night, actors Derek Reid and Sarah Barragry. They were full of Irish humour and after a couple of traditional songs, they donned bowler hats and acted out excerpts from the Becket play everyone knows – Waiting for Godot, but it was not just the acting, it was the anecdotes and fascinating facts behind the play – and of course stories of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses.
The uninitiated learned the significance of June 16 – Bloomsday – the day in 1904 on which the book is set and of Joyce’s first date with Nora Barnacle, who became his lifelong companion and eventually his wife.
After more fun with Ulysses and more jokes cracked with dry Irish wit, the actors ushered out of the warmth of the pub and onto our next stop, which explained Derek Reid was “a cultural stop without a drink”.
It turned out to be the grey-stone walls of Trinity College, home to many Irish literati and provided the early education for Oscar Wilde. Neil’s spiel was full of stories, some known others unknown, about the famous writer.
We were also informed that at the end of the tour we would be given a quiz about what we had seen with prizes: A pub crawl T-shirt and a miniature bottle of Irish whiskey for second prize.
We were given plenty of clues on the way round.
Then we move on from the draughty corner to the next stop, which was to be a “drinking stop with no culture”.
The pub was O’Neills, in Suffolk Street, a 300-year-old hostelry with its many snugs and small rooms and lots of dark wood and art deco. It was a pub with a reputation for fine foods and popular by the local lawyers and business people, but the night we were in it was fairly full with local characters. I saw a couple of empty space around a table and urged my wife to grab the spots while I ordered the Guinness. After the usual wait for the drinks to settle, I carried them back to see a couple of elderly type, with eyes gleaming, chatting away to my wife.
They were characters straight out of an Irish movie and they chatted, grinned, told jokes and completely monopolised my wife. The only words I got from them were to tell me I was a lucky man!
But it was all harmless fun and good time was had by all as we experienced another side of Irish culture in this non-cultural stop!
And so, after the thirty minute stop, it was back onto the streets and before long we were standing under the Grecian columns of the Dublin Tourist Office.
This, it was explained used to a Protestant Church that closed in the 1980s and was later refurbished as the tourist centre. Its claim to fame was that it stood on the spot that the Vikings first settled back on 841.
Then it was a hurried walk back to the warmth of the next pub – The Old Stand on the corner of Exchequer and St Andrew Streets, another fascinating drinking spot and the one that Michael Collins, the man who signed the treaty that created the Irish Free State and so began the partition of Ireland. It’s a pub of horse brasses and an island bar where paintings and historic photos stare down from the walls.
Then it was back to Duke Street where our host stood in a shabby doorway, tantalisingly close to the tempting lights of Davy Byrne’s pub, the place used as a backdrop in Ulysses.
He gave us the quiz. I was hopeful, I knew all the answers, but wasn’t quick enough. The T-shirt went to a tourist from the US while the second prize of a miniature Irish whiskey was taken off by my wife.
It was 10 pm then, so rather join the Guinness drinkers we wandered back to the hotel and enjoyed a relaxed glass of wine in the sumptuous foyer of the Westbury before going back to the luxurious bedroom and a sleep on a Doyle hotel group special bed and pillows.
I rate the tour as one of the best organised, informative and fun experience anywhere in ther world – and Colm Quilligan’s book is a must for a permanent memento.
The tours run from January to March: Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday at 7.30 pm and in the summer months (April to October) every Evening at 7.30 pm. There is also and extra tour at noon each Sunday throughout the year that features modern writers like Eavan Boland, Brendan Kennelly, Paula Meehan, Denis O’Driscoll and Seamus Heaney - not forgetting Joyce and company.
Cost: $12 euros, ten for students.
Getting there: You can fly direct from UK provincial airports to Dublin, but I recommend the ferry ride from Holyhead directly into the city. It’s run by the Irish Ferries Company. Try the three-hour comfort of the huge Ulysses and the return on the fast moving Swift. Cost is from $48 per person (foot passenger), with a $24 upgrade to Club Class, which is highly recommended for the complimentary food and drinks and extra comfort of the less crowded area.
Stay: Westbury five-star Hotel. A superior room costs $320 per night including breakfast and free internet.
Must do: Hop on Hop off bus around the city, cost $24 person; The Literary Pub Crawl, cost $19 per person.
www.absolutetheatre.com.au
Photo by Deanne Scott: The old brass and dark wood in the bar at O’Neill’s pub
