I don't know how it's possible to write a whole essay (albeit an excellent one like this) about Dublin without mentioning James Joyce, except in passing.

I spent five days there, completely as a tourist. There are lots of things in the essay that you'd only see as a resident, or at least, someone with a lot more time. Or maybe, someone who's read this book beforehand.

PS: Lest you're expecting one more citing of Ulysses as "the greatest novel ever written": I took a whole course on that book last year at Stanford Extension. I came away decidedly not thinking that anymore. I think a lot of Joyce's literary "innovations" are old hat nowadays.

It's not an essay. It's a book review.

But since you seem to think Joyce is old hat, why would you expect him to appear in every essay about Dublin?

I live in Dublin so I'm vaguely aware of the status of Joyce—actually I went to the same school he did. Dublin is small (and boring!) but it's big enough that there are things to talk about other than Joyce.

Isn't it in the nature of innovations that they become old hat a century later?

Most of them.

Anyhow, there are works of art that still speak to us, e.g. Tolstoy, Shakespeare, and then there are some that were important at the time.