James Joyce's Dublin

The Irish writer James Joyce set much of his works in Dublin. Due to his modernist style of writing which gives a lot of details on the sites where action takes place, you can often trace his characters on a map and identify those places of early 20th century Dublin which still exist.

Understand
Perhaps Joyce's most famous work - Ulysses - famously describes events on a single day in Dublin - June 16 1904 - the anniversary of which has since come to be known as Bloomsday for one of the characters in the book. Many Joyce enthusiasts gather at various sites in Dublin (and elsewhere) on this day, to celebrate the events of the book and Joyce's literary heritage. Apparently, Joyce chose that date as it was his first "date" with his would-be wife and muse Nora Barnacle.

While Joyce would later leave Dublin to live in other major cities of Europe, and is buried near Zurich in Switzerland, he continued writing works set in Dublin, one (a collection of short stories) even entitled Dubliners.