From the north end of O’Connell Street, cross Parnell Street and turn left. The green copper dome that gives the Rotunda Hospital its name is on your right, on the corner of Parnell Square East and Parnell Street. The entrance is on your right, set a little way back from Parnell Street behind a row of trees and shrubs. Dublin dads-to-be still pop out of this grand 18th-century hospital to pace up and down the pavement and grab a quick smoke. Founded in 1745, the Rotunda is the first purpose-built maternity hospital in the world. The architect was German-born Richard Cassells (1690–1751; he later anglicized his name to Castle), who also designed Leinster House, seat of the Irish Parliament, but the rotunda at the east end of the hospital, after which the building is now named, is an afterthought. Added in 1764, it was designed by John Ensor as a venue for concerts and events to raise money for the hospital and other charitable causes. Franz Liszt performed here in 1864. The hospital’s most striking feature is its lovely chapel. Designed by Castle, its ornate interior is a feast of elaborate stucco, fluted pilasters and superb stained glass.

With the hospital on your right, continue along the north side of Parnell Street to the end of the block and turn right on to Parnell Square West. The west front of the hospital is on your right. Walk past it to the end of the block, cross to the north side of Parnell Square North, turn right, then midway along this short block turn left into Charlemont House, home of Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Sir Hugh Lane amassed a remarkable collection of paintings by 19th-century Impressionists, including Manet and Degas, which in 1905 he offered to donate to the city on his death. The city corporation was unable to offer a suitable gallery in which to hang them, and only agreed to provide this elegant building after Lane threatened to give his collection to the National Gallery in London. Built in the mid-18th century, the building was originally the city home of Lord Charlemont. Sir Hugh Lane drowned in 1915 aboard the transatlantic liner Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat, and Dublin and London squabbled for the next 50 years over which had title to the paintings. As a compromise, some 31 of the collection’s 39 paintings remain in Dublin but eight major works are divided into two groups and shared between London and Dublin, with four of the paintings shown in Dublin for six years at a time.

Continue along Parnell Square North to No. 18, an 18th-century townhouse that now houses the Dublin Writers Museum. Enter the cool, calm museum through elegant stone columns that flank          its handsome doorway. This museum gives pride of place to Irish writers and poets from the dawn of Irish literature almost 1,000 years ago up to the early 20th century and the post-Independence period, but seems to have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to more recent contributors to Irish writing. The collection embraces manuscripts, first editions and letters, and for those who are interested in what their literary heroes looked like there is a fine portrait gallery upstairs. The museum bookshop offers a specialist search service for rare and out-of-print editions of Irish authors. There is also a delightful café.

Cross to the south side of the street and enter the Garden of Remembrance at the north end of Parnell Square. This little park is laden with memories of Irish freedom fighters. After the surrender of the Irish Volunteers holding the General Post Office in 1916, their leaders were held overnight here before being imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol, where several were later summarily executed for their part in the Easter Rising. The garden was redesigned and dedicated as a memorial in 1966 on the 50th anniversary of the rising by President Eamon de Valera, himself a veteran of the war of independence. The pool in the centre of the garden is decorated with a mosaic of broken weapons, symbolizing an end to war, and the striking bronze statue beside it portrays the children of King Lir who, according to Irish myth, were turned into swans by a jealous stepmother. Oisin Kelly sculpted Children of Lir in 1971.

Walk to the side of the water memorial and through the square to the southeast corner, towards the rear of the Rotunda Hospital. You will see the Gate Theatre standing between you and the dome of the Rotunda at 1 Cavendish Row. This grand theatre is another of Richard Castle’s designs. Built in 1786 as the city’s Assembly Rooms, it was converted into a theatre some years after Independence, in 1928 with the intention of bringing new work by international playwrights to the Dublin public. More than 80 years on, the Gate is still recognized as Dublin’s premier venue for new and classical drama. 

From the theatre, go down the left side of Parnell Square East for half a block, to the intersection of Parnell Square East, O’Connell Street and Parnell Street. In the centre of this intersection is the marble Parnell Monument, commemorating the ‘uncrowned King of Ireland’, Charles Stuart Parnell. Like his forerunner Daniel O’Connell, Parnell sought to achieve self-government for Ireland through the existing political process. A Protestant by faith, he was elected to Parliament in London where he became a force to be reckoned with. Parnell built a strong movement for land reform and home rule, but his political alliance with the Liberal government of William Gladstone suffered as a result of the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the British Chief Secretary for Ireland, by the extremist ‘Invincibles’, in Phoenix Park. His credibility was destroyed when his affair with married woman Katharine O’Shea was exposed in 1890.

Turn left, stay on the left-hand side of Parnell Street, and walk one short block to North Great George’s Street. Walk up this grand street and, less than halfway up the block, cross over the street to enter the James Joyce Centre. Although Joyce drew on his native city for the background and inspiration of all his towering works of literature, he quit Dublin as soon as he could at the age of 22 and came back only for a few brief visits. The Roman Catholic Church ensured that his books were classed as blasphemous and obscene and banned them in his native land. Those days are over, and Joyce is celebrated within this grand townhouse, which was originally built in 1784 for the Earl of Kenmare. The author’s characters – many of them thinly disguised pen-portraits of actual Dubliners – are also celebrated in the centre’s key exhibit, a series of biographies of the real people on whom the characters in Ulysses were based. One of them, the fancifully named ‘Professor Dennis J Maginni’, held dancing lessons for ladies and gentlemen in this very house. It is said he awarded himself the title of ‘professor’, and that he Italianized his name to Maginni from the more mundane McGuinness to add a touch of Latin flair to his dancing academy.