Gulliver’s Travels Workshop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Saturday 9 May
A Walking Tour of Swift’s Dublin with Dr. Brendan Twomey
This two-hour walking tour explores the historic streets of Dublin associated with Jonathan Swift.
The tour begins at Marsh’s Library, built in 1707 and one of Swift’s favourite haunts. Here, we will view the current Gulliver @ 300 exhibition.
We will then continue to several nearby sites linked to Swift, including the Cabbage Patch, Long Lane, St Kevin’s Church, the charming Gulliver’s Travels terracotta roundels in Golden Lane, and St Patrick’s Park.
The tour concludes inside St Patrick’s Cathedral, where Swift served as Dean for over thirty years. You will have the opportunity to see the many monuments connected with him.
Throughout the walk, your guide will share the fascinating – and often colourful – stories (of varying reliability!) surrounding Jonathan Swift and this historic quarter of Dublin
About Dr Brendan Twomey
Dr. Brendan Twomey is a retired banker. In 2018 he completed his PhD in TCD, Personal Financial Management in Early Eighteenth-Century Ireland: Practices, participants, and outcomes, under the supervision of Prof. David Dickson. His publications include two forthcoming essays A 1742 inventory of Jonathan Swift’s household goods and chattels, in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, and Debtor imprisonment in eighteenth-century Ireland in David Hayton and Ciarán Mac Murchaidh (eds) Improvement and nationhood: essays in Irish history, c. 1730-c. 1850 presented to James Kelly.
Previous publications include ‘the receiver-general is not in cash to pay …’ The financial travails of Dublin Corporation, 1690-1760, causes, actions and political impact’ in Politics and political culture in Ireland from Restoration to Union, 1660-1800(2022), ‘House refurbishment in mid-eighteenth-century Dublin’ in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, Vol. xxiv, (2021), Sir John T. Gilbert: life, works and contexts (2013) and Financing Speculative Property Development in early eighteenth-century Dublin (2010).
He has published three volumes in the Maynooth Studies in Local History; The perjury trial of Patrick Hurly of Moughna, Co. Clare; Elite Catholic responses to the emerging Protestant ascendancy (2024), Dublin in 1707: A year in the life of the city (2010) and Smithfield and the parish of St Paul: 1698-1745 (2004). His current research interests are focussed on celebrating the 300th anniversary of the publication of Gulliver’s Travels, first published in 1726, and on continuing his research into the financial and legal affairs of Jonathan Swift.
More Info
Duration: Approx 2 hours
Age Suitability: 18+
Accessibility: Fully Accessible
Meeting Point: Marsh's Library, St Patrick's Close, Dublin 8, D08 FK79
