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Dublin ’s Abbey Theater gave a stage to Yeats and other dramatists: J. M Synge, George Moore, and Sean O’Casey. Richard Sheridan and George Bernard Shaw were born in Dublin. James Joyce grew up in Dublin, city of his birth, and it is reflected in autobiographical book Portrait of an Artist As A Young Man, a work that cuts a deep slice into city, country, and culture.
Trinity College in Dublin is oldest in Ireland, and it has pumped out many distinguished writers, such as Thomas Moore and Oliver Goldsmith to Oscar Wilde. But Trinity has a Protestant tinge, while Joyce was a Catholic. Even though Joyce spent most of his time in Europe writing, his eye for discernment was distinctly as a Dubliner. His most famous work, Ulysses, was published in Paris in 1922, same year Republic of Ireland was formed after over 300 years of English lordship. Ulysses is about a single day, Thursday, June 16, 1904, same year National Theatre incubated Abbey. The focus of book is on a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom, and you meet numerous Dubliners throughout novel. It is a tightly woven tapestry of Dublin. The Martellow Tower, a central point in book, still stands in Dublin. The towers were built by British to thwart a possible invasion from Napoleon.
It was an educated and sophisticated audience in attendance night I attended packed Abbey for drama, Observe Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme. The dire forewarning of a shaky independence spotlights Ulster boys preparing and then fighting in WWI trenches of France in 1916, same year that foment of Irish Independence rears its head, which was so magnificently captured in movie, Ryan’s Daughter. It is also ironic that this drama would play in Republic of Ireland’s largest city, while Ulster is in Northern Ireland.
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By Kriss Hammond, Editor, Jetsetters Magazine – Visit Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
By Kriss Hammond, Editor, Jetsetters Magazine. Join the Travel Writers Network at www.jetsettersmagazine.com