Kersey's Dublin vs. Joyce's Dublin

After our group had traveled to see Dublin we began reading The Dubliners by James Joyce. My friends and I had visited the Temple Bar area in the city and enjoyed it. It seemed like the equivalent of a "college town" in America. There were young people everywhere, live music on the streets, graffiti art painted on the walls in some places, and of course an absurd amount of pubs. Needless to say, my friends and I felt like we fit in better in this section of Dublin. The contrast between the aspects of the city we saw compared to the description of Dublin especially in Joyce's stories Counterparts and Two Gallants was a bit shocking. The Dublin James Joyce knew was a shady dirty place that seemed to breed people who survived by trickery. The characters in his stories were dishonest men struggling to make ends meet, and despite those facts they blew the last of their paychecks on drinks. Just like any large city today there will be seedier areas that people, especially tourists, should be careful in. However my experience in Dublin was nothing like the picture Joyce painted.