From Samuel Beckett to Jonathan Swift and Bram Stoker to Sally Rooney, Dublin's newest museum will celebrate Ireland's world-renowned literary culture and heritage from past to present.
Ireland is famous for its world-renowned writers and storytellers (scan your bookshelves and chances are at least one Irish author is represented.) Now tourists can explore and celebrate its rich literary heritage at the new Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) on St Stephen's Green in the heart of Dublin city. On display will be a host of literary treasures from the National Library collections including the very first copy of James Joyce's Ulysses, as well as handwritten notebooks for Ulysses and letters, including one from Joyce to WB Yeats.
MoLi will also host literary and writing events, readings, performances, debates and discussion, as well as a Joycean research library. Along with historic house tours, contemporary artistic commissions, a courtyard café and a bookstore, MoLI will present temporary exhibitions throughout the year, the first focusing on Limerick-born writer Kate O'Brien. The museum also houses its own original broadcasting studio, recording interviews, readings, discussions and events with writers, poets, artists, performers, educators and academics from Ireland and abroad, which listeners can access online no matter where in the world are.
"MoLI will be a literary and educational oasis for locals and visitors alike, in the very heart of Dublin," says Simon O'Connor, director of MoLI. While Professor Margaret Kelleher, chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at University College Dublin, adds: "at the heart of MoLI is Ireland’s outstanding literary culture, and not just the riches of the past but also the dynamic present and future of Irish writing."
MoLI will officially open from 10am on Saturday, 21 September. Tickets are priced at €6 (US$6.62) and can be purchased at the museum.
Want more? Explore Ireland's literary culture at the Dublin Writers Museum and Poetry Ireland, both are located on Parnell Square in the heart of Georgian Dublin.
