Literary Journeys

Exploring the paths that literature opens

Tag: Dublin

  • The Gravediggers

    Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin is a national cemetery for the Irish, established in 1832. It is the final resting place of over a million people, including many famous and distinguished Irishmen.

    Right next to one of the cemetery gates is a pub with the charming name ‘The Gravediggers’, founded by John Kavanagh in 1833. Kavanagh had a knack for business, because not only did he open a bar that attracted mourners and served the gravediggers who worked at the cemetery, but he also bought the land around it to prevent any potential competition in the immediate vicinity.

    The pub is named after the cemetery workers who were so keen to use its services. So keen that the main gate was eventually moved to another location, and a special window was made in the pub’s wall through which gravediggers could order beer by knocking on it with a shovel. Today, the pub’s guests are mostly tourists visiting the cemetery.

    However, James Joyce does not mention The Gravediggers in his famous novel Ulysses although one of the characteristic scenes – the funeral of Paddy Dignam (Episode 6, ‘Hades’) – takes place in Glasnevin Cemetery.

    ‘The O’Connell circle, Mr Dedalus said about him. (…)

    Mr Bloom walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland’s hearts and hands. (…)

    How many! All these here once walked round Dublin. Faithful departed. As you are now so once were we. (…)

    The gates glimmered in front: still open. Back to the world again. Enough of this place. (…)

    Thank you. How grand we are this morning!’

    In the pub itself, part of the action of the novel Dublinesque by the Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas takes place.

    The story follows Samuel Riba, a retired Spanish publisher who loves books and worries about the decline of the literary world. He travels to Dublin with a few friends to hold a mock funeral for the ‘Gutenberg era’ – the age of printed books – inspired by Ulysses and the work of James Joyce.

    While in Dublin, they visit real places linked to Ulysses, including ‘The Gravediggers’. Vila-Matas uses the pub as both a real setting and a symbol – a place between life and death, past and present – which suits a story about endings: of people, books, and times gone by.

  • The House of the Dead

    15 Usher’s Island in Dublin, Ireland, is a classic Georgian townhouse overlooking the River Liffey. It’s an important part of literary history. In the late 1800s, the house was home to the grand-aunts of writer James Joyce, who also ran a music school there. Their home later became the setting for one of Joyce’s most famous stories, The Dead, the last one in his collection, Dubliners.

    ‘Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat when the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest. It was always a great affair, the Misses Morkan’s annual dance. Everybody who knew them came to it, members of the family, old friends of the family, the members of Julia Morkan’s choir, any of Kate Morkan’s pupils that were grown up enough, and even some of Mary Jane’s pupils too.’

    The Dead takes place during a Christmas party at 15 Usher’s Island. The main characters, Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta, attend the yearly dinner held by Gabriel’s aunts. The evening features music and a discussion on politics. As they prepare to leave, Gabriel sees Gretta standing quietly on the stairs, deep in thought. A song from the party has brought back memories of her youth…

    This story made the house a well-known literary location, though in later years it was often empty or used by squatters.

    In 1987, director John Huston used the house’s exterior in his film version of The Dead.

    A scene from John Huston’s film The Dead

    Around 2000, Brendan Kilty, a barrister and passionate Joycean, purchased 15 Usher’s Island and lovingly restored the house as a tribute to James Joyce’s The Dead. His vision was to revive the spirit of the story’s famous dinner scene, hosting gatherings and events that celebrated Dublin’s literary heritage. For a time, the house stood as a living museum of Joyce’s world – filled with music, conversation, and echoes of the past. However, financial difficulties eventually forced Kilty into bankruptcy in 2012, and the house was sold by receivers in 2017.

    ‘The drawing-room was filled with so many guests that the young men, unable to find chairs, had to stand about in groups near the piano. The middle of the room was occupied by a large square piano and a tall mirror above the mantelpiece reflected the gas flames, making the room bright and warm.’

    For many people in Dublin, the house still feels like a part of Joyce’s world. When there were plans to turn it into a tourist hostel, writer Colm Tóibín and others objected, saying it was too important culturally. Unfortunately, their appeal didn’t succeed.

    Whatever the future holds for 15 Usher’s Island, The Dead has left its mark here. The house now faces a bridge named after Joyce, linking Usher’s Island with Blackhall Place on the north side of the river. The bridge opened on Bloomsday in 2003.