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Dublin Literary Pub Crawl
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From €23 per person
Dublin has produced more great writers per square mile than almost anywhere on earth, and this 2-hour 15-minute walking tour is one of the most enjoyable ways to get properly acquainted with that tradition. Local actors guide you through the pubs and haunts that inspired James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Brendan Behan, Sean O’Casey, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Paula Meehan, and Brendan Kennelly.
It’s a genuinely entertaining evening - part literary education, part pub crawl. You’ll visit four famous Dublin pubs, hear verses read aloud, pick up the stories that became folklore in Dublin’s literary circles, and if you’re sharp enough, take home a prize from the literary quiz at the end.
The tour kicks off upstairs at the Duke Pub on Duke Street. Come with a curiosity about Irish writing and you’ll leave knowing far more than you arrived with.
Meeting point: Upstairs in The Duke Pub, 9 Duke Street, just off Grafton Street.
Duke Street is worth finding on its own. Just off the top of Grafton Street, it’s one of those short Dublin streets that punches well above its length in terms of character. The Duke pub has been a literary landmark for decades, and showing up five minutes early gives you a chance to settle in before the tour gets going.
The drinks aren’t included, but that’s by design. You’ll be in four different pubs over the course of the evening, so you can pace yourself however you like - whether that’s a pint at each stop or just the one. Nobody’s counting, and the focus is firmly on the performances and the stories rather than the bar tab.
The actors are the real draw here. These aren’t tour guides reciting facts - they’re trained performers who bring the writing to life. The passages from Joyce, Beckett, Behan, and the others land very differently when they’re performed well in a real Dublin pub. It’s a genuinely different experience from reading them on the page.
The literary quiz at the end is competitive. Past attendees have noted it’s harder than you’d expect. If you want to be in with a chance of a prize, a quick scan of the writers listed above before you arrive won’t hurt. That said, even if you get every question wrong, you’ll have had a great evening.
This pairs brilliantly with a free afternoon in the same area. The streets around Grafton Street, Dawson Street, and St. Stephen’s Green are thick with literary connections. If you’ve got time before the tour, a wander with a coffee in hand sets you up nicely for the evening.