Situated 3 doors from the Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art, the Dublin Writers Museum is in a splendidly restored 18th century Georgian house, with stained glass windows, painted door panels and a magnificent salon. The museum tells its basic story in 2 rooms on the ground floor, the first dedicated to Irish literature up to the end of the 19th century, the second dealing with the 20th century. The first room features important writers such as Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, Bram Stoker, and GB Shaw. This leads on to the story of the Abbey Theatre as well as James Joyce, JM Synge (Playboy of the Western World), Patrick Kavanagh and others in the next room.
Just the right amount of information for easy browsing is displayed in poster-fashion on the walls, including summaries of writers' lives, and interesting snippets and details (such as the observation once made of GB Shaw - 'a committed vegetarian and a wearer of woollen suits').
Old-fashioned display panels hold first-edition copies, including a first-edition of Duil from 1953 (which students of Irish will be amazed to see looks just like much later editions) and other interesting articles such as Samuel Beckett's telephone, which has a large red button to exclude incoming calls.
The Gallery of Writers is upstairs, decorated with painted door panels which date from the end of the 19th century, when the owner of the house was George Jameson, a member of the Jameson distilling family. And if you're interested in old books and rare editions, the Gorham Library has quite a collection.
Admission fee, but concessions for children, students, groups.
There's also a combined ticket for this Museum and the either the
Shaw Birthplace, or the Joyce Museum.
Facilities: cafe and a good bookshop; tours available in several
languages.
