Dublin: UNESCO City of Literature

Dublin was named a UNESCO City of Literature a few days ago. It now joins the ranks of such literary capitals as Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Iowa City. Iowa City??? That's right -- I'll get back to that later.

Here are some of the criteria to become one:

• Quality, quantity and diversity of publishing in the city
• Quality and quantity of educational programmes focusing on domestic or foreign literature at primary, secondary and tertiary levels
• Literature, drama and/or poetry playing an important role in the city
• Hosting literary events and festivals which promote domestic and foreign literature;
• Existence of libraries, bookstores and public or private cultural centres which preserve, promote and disseminate domestic and foreign literature
• Involvement by the publishing sector in translating literary works from diverse national languages and foreign literature
• Active involvement of traditional and new media in promoting literature and strengthening the market for literary products.

Let's look at each of these.

Quality, quantity and diversity of publishing in the city

An Gúm is a government-owned publisher, which prints the high-quality Irish <-> English Foclóir Póca (Pocket Dictionary). They also print other pedagogical textbooks for Irish learners, and many Irish-language novels. There are also several other smaller publishers which aren't internationally known.

Quality and quantity of educational programmes focusing on domestic or foreign literature at primary, secondary and tertiary levels

I'm sure they do a fairly good job with this.

Literature, drama and/or poetry playing an important role in the city

Second-to-none. Historically, Dublin has been associated with Nobel laureates William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett, to say nothing of Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and James Joyce, as well as Seamus Heaney, another Nobel Prize winner.

Hosting literary events and festivals which promote domestic and foreign literature

They do quite a good job with this. The Abbey Theatre was co-founded by W.B. Yeats in 1904 and has been going strong since then. Orson Welles started his career at the Gate Theatre in 1931. There's also the Gaiety Theatre, founded in 1871. I've seen plays at all three of these.

There's also Bloomsday, which celebrates the day that Ulysses takes place (June 16th). A few days beforehand I visited the starting point of the book, Joyce Martello tower, which inspired Joyce to write it (if "inspired" is the right word :-).

Existence of libraries, bookstores and public or private cultural centres which preserve, promote and disseminate domestic and foreign literature

Trinity College Library, home to the Book of Kells, is quite nice, as is the National Library of Ireland. Most local libraries and the DCU library are very underwhelming, however.

Hodges Figgis is one of the best bookstores I've

ever seen. Also around Dawson Street are several other very cool specialist bookshops.

The Chester Beatty Library is a very impressive private collection of Renaissance, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian works of literature and art. I was able to spend about 1.5 hours there, and only saw a fraction of the exhibits.

Involvement by the publishing sector in translating literary works from diverse national languages and foreign literature

Again, An Gúm and related publishers do a pretty good job translating notable works to Irish.

Active involvement of traditional and new media in promoting literature and strengthening the market for literary products

Raidió na Gaeltachta and Teilifís na Gaeilge do an honorable job at promoting Irish language, music, art, and culture.

So, in spite of a few weak spots, Dublin does live up to being a City of Literature.

As for Iowa City, I'll let you be the judge of that!