Launched to coincide with the Scottish Year of the Story, this exhibition explores the literary links between Ireland and Edinburgh. Focusing on writers like Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle, the exhibition highlights the role Edinburgh publishers have played in the careers of Irish writers. The connection between Scots Gaelic is also presented, with particular reference to the cross-island collaboration An Leabhar Mór.
Proximity and a shared history of plantation and immigration have created enduring literary and linguistic links between Ireland and Scotland. As an intellectual and cultural centre for centuries, Edinburgh has been home to many great writers. Lauded by Robert Burns as “Edina! Scotia’s darling seat!” and more emphatically by Robert Louis Stevenson as “What Paris ought to be”, the city has always lived up to the reputation as “The Athens of the North”.
Edinburgh was made the first UNESCO City of Literature in 2004. The Scottish government marked this honour by creating the role of the National Poet for Scotland, the Makar, taken from the Middle Scots term for ‘poet’. Edinburgh is often deemed one of the richest cities in the world in terms of sheer quality, quantity and promotion of the written word, making it a perfect place to include in MoLI’s Literary Cities series of exhibitions.
