At the Dublin Writers Museum, words haunt the hallways, trip up the Georgian staircase and linger in the grand salon.
The great wordsmiths of Ireland's past are here, too, if only in the tints of oil portraits lining the high-ceilinged rooms. Their spirits wink from the walls.They were joined last October by living Irish writers who gathered to celebrate the opening of the first museum in the world dedicated to a nation's writers.
Ireland's Nobel trio are on the walls: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett.
Some of the sharpest pens of the 20th century are here: James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Lady Gregory, John Synge, Bram Stoker, Sean O'Casey, Patrick Kavanagh, Frank O'Connor, Brendan Behan.
What a century!
But the Dublin Writers Museum is dedicated to the Irish writers of coming generations as well. The elegant townhouse where George Jameson, the whiskey baron, once lived stands alongside another restored townhouse, the Irish Writer's Centre, which also opened in late 1991.
The dual facilities at 18 and 19 Parnell Square feature permanent literary exhibits and temporary shows, poetry readings, book launches and lectures, "meet-the-author" sessions, story hours for children and writing classes.
On the museum side, the restoration is opulent. Specially commissioned stained-glass windows lighted from behind picture the big guns of Irish prose and poem. A grand staircase is set off by a banister that curls to pleasing conclusion in a cinnamon-roll swirl of turned wood.
As for the trappings of writers, there are books - pristine first editions, scribbled and annotated manuscripts. Corrected versions and hieroglyphic cross-outs make one feel better about the glorious and abominable craft this museum celebrates: These folks often didn't get it right the first time, either.
Visitors can see Behan's seaman's card, Oliver St. John Gogarty's typewriter and Frank O'Connor's pipe, along with paintings, letters and artifacts full of the flavor of Ireland's rich literary heritage.
The museum and writer's center were funded by the Irish government and a grant from the European Economic Community. They are open seven days a week; adult admission is 2 pounds - about $3.20.