17 North Richmond Street
For scribblers, the draw of Dublin is James Joyce. One of my favorite things in Joyce is “Araby”, which is set at North Richmond Street, which was in fact one of the homes where Joyce grew up. Joyce's prose was like poetry, and in one of my favorite passages from “Araby”, Joyce describes the young boy and his friends playing in the streets in winter:
When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street.
The street lights were, in fact, “lanterns”, i.e. gas light.
