Saturday, July 14, 2018

Irish Lit is Lit

Coming to Ireland, I only knew the island for its drinking of Guinness and stories of deception and tales of the supernatural. Recently I adventured on the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl by accompanying three professional actors as they performed renditions of some of Ireland’s famous writers like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Oscar Wilde, and many others.

This insightful tour gave me knowledge of past writer’s ideals through the portrayal of their famous works. I now can see the Irish for more than just the drinking I once believed was their talent. The voice and passion of the Irish now stand out most. Having both the intelligence and the charisma to produce such beautiful literature truly opened a different perspective to me.

Two actors performing "Waiting for Godot" at Dukes Pub


If the stories about the writers were not engaging enough for some, there was an added incentive to paying attention along the tour. When the pub crawl started at the Duke Pub in Dublin, the actors announced there would be a trivia challenge at the very end with two potential prizes to those who could answer the most correct answers about both the writers and their literary movements. Anyone with a competitive mindset was truly engaged after this point. After proclaiming the challenge, one actor then broke out into a famous interactive Irish song “Waxie’s Dargle.”

True Irish actor playing an Irish song in Dublin


The pub crawl then proceeds to tell more tales and famous songs of Irish history, most of which I was hearing for the first time. The most notable lectures tome where those by Oscar Wilde while we strolled through Trinity College. What we heard of his work through adversity was pervasive in a positive manor. His influence to me can be seen as having a voice and standing out even when others may not want to hear it. Wilde definitely had an impact of future writers.

The tour continued to go through M.J. O’Neill, then to The Old Stand, and finally concluding to Davy Byrnes. It was outside of this last pub where everyone regurgitated their brief trivial knowledge. Our class at IUSB worked semi-collectively to take one of the two prizes showing our commitment to excellence. Overall in regards to the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, I would definitely recommend everyone to indulge on this tour to not only see the city from an insider’s view, but to gain some knowledge on the people who helped shape literature in Ireland and made an impact on the city for the better. The tour has also received brilliant reviews

Pictured is myself, actor (I believe Finn was his name), my classmate David, and the other two awesome actors!


Special thanks to the three gentlemen actors that led our tour (whose names now escape me)…