Dublin
|
| In
February
1812, Shelley,
his wife
Harriet,
and her sister
Eliza Westbrook
arrived in
Dublin, bent
on radical
activity.
They initially
stayed at
a woolen-draper's
lodgings
on Sackville
Street, a
busy
road that
was later
destroyed
to make way
for O’Connell
Street’s
even busier
grand boulevard.
Today,
the original
address's
location
can only
be guessed
at. Shelley
immediately
began circulating
his letters
of introduction,
making
arrangements
to publish
his revolutionary
An
Address to
the Irish
People,
and writing
republican
verse dedicated
to what
he perceived
as a worldwide
move toward
freedom.
Within days,
he began
circulating
the hot-off-the-press
Address,
sending
some copies
to pubs
and having
his servant
sell or
give away
others.
Shelley,
frequently
accompanied
by Harriet
and Eliza,
walked the
streets
of Dublin
and tossed
copies into
carriages,
windows—even
the hood
of a lady's
cloak. |
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|
| He also made his first public speech at the Fishamble
Theatre, now a modern building given over to offices, toney
shops, and upscale housing. Additional new construction
was in progress in 1999. |
|
|
| Later,
the Shelleys
moved south
of the River
Liffey to
17 Grafton
Street, a
building
which still
exists, now
a fashionable
grey and
white Marks
and Spencer
department
store. No.
17 was the
notorious "Cave
of Abdullah," so
called
because
of the wild-eyed,
wild-haired
radical
Romantics
who called
on Shelley
there.
A useful
history
of the
Grafton
Street
building
and surrounding
area can
be found
in Anne
Haverty’s Elegant
Times:
A Dublin
Story (Dublin:
Sonas,
1995). |
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