Qype User (.
Yelp
Dublin's writers museum which opened in 1991, is a pretty good attempt at this cities rich literary heritage, and the lovely 18th C. building that's it's housed in on the north side of Parnell Square is one of it's real strengths. The rooms with original ornate interiors are superb, particularly the upper salon, known as The Gallery of Writers.
As to the influences of such an impressive selection of writers from Jonathon Swift to Samuel Beckett, well they do gloss over a lot of the ancient origins, the celtic myths & legends and the bardic traditions of story telling are all given very little mention, whats needed is a little imagination here I think, as such works were themselves huge flights of the mind.
I never forget the first time I went in here there was a really nice old chap doing a guided tour with only a Canadian Girl and myself, and he was so absorbing and passionate about Irish literature and the role that Dublin had played in such writers lives. He introduced me to Flann O'Brien, and was quite adamant that I should read 'At swim two birds', reciting from memory lengthy passages of it, which inspired me to read what has since become a favourite book.
I did previously love Oliver Goldsmith, W.B. Yeats' poems and Sean O'casey's plays, also Brendan Behan was a hero, but this inspired me to read more.
My favourite thing in the museum is a first edition of Patrick Kavanagh's 'The Great Hunger', which famously had 24 lines cut from the 2nd stanza, by the publisher who got cold feet at the supposed heated language! Furious, Paddy went round bookshops writing in this missing stanza to every copy he could find! Those missing lines in his spindly hand are visible in a copy they have here.
A suitably inspiring environment.