New Travel Routes Project Celebrates Ireland's Literary Heritage

Arts Over Borders has launched a new project identifying and celebrating the concentration of literary greatness across Ireland. 

Covering 11 border counties, the maps of the Northern Literary Lands (NLL) scheme connect regions and major towns such as Derry, Newry, Dundalk, Sligo, and Armagh by linking them with writers including Nobel Laureates W.B. Yeats (influenced by his Co. Sligo childhood), Samuel Beckett (schooldays in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh) and Seamus Heaney (born and raised in Derry). Organisers hope it will become the world’s first UNESCO Region of Literature. 

The NLL takes in works including the mythological epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S Lewis's Narnia was inspired by Rostrevor and the Mourne Mountains in Co. Down), The Happy Prince (author Oscar Wilde was inspired by Cole’s Monument in Enniskillen), Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift wrote most of the novel in Cookstown, Co. Down), The Third Policeman (Flann O’Brien was born and raised in Strabane, Co. Tyrone), and Dancing at Lughnasa (Brian Friel was born in Knockmoyle, near Omagh, Co. Tyrone, and spent half his life in the north and half in the south of Ireland).
 
Arts Over Borders has created nine suggested routes for travellers with a particular love for specific writers and genres. Each Literary Way can be completed in a day. The NLL incorporates this year’s forthcoming AOB festivals, the Samuel Beckett Biennale and FrielDays: A Homecoming 2026. 

“This is a new way of celebrating the literary richness at the liminal intersection of the northern and southern parts of the island," said Arts Over Borders artistic director Seán Doran whho co-developed the initiative with his long-time artistic colleague and literary director, Liam Browne who died last month. "Each Literary Way criss-crosses the border, revealing a staggering concentration of literary giants. Experientially, for the culturally curious, it is an espresso literary hit.”