Commemorating The Link Between Writing And Drink

An Post has just commemorated the great Irish writer Flann O'Brien by issuing a stamp with his likeness to decorate your mail.

No greater honor?

The Palace Bar has gone one better, topping the postal service.

The favored pub of writers from The Irish Times has placed the image of Mr. O'Brien into the footpath outside the front door.

Now that's permanence. That is genuine honor.

The bronze plaque is one of four that pays tribute to the likes of Brendan Behan (died of the drink), poet Patrick Kavanagh, and sports writer Con Houlihan, every one a patron of the establishment.

Writers have long been associated with alcohol, and the unveiling of the plaques serves to reinforce the belief that alcohol is often the inspiration behind some of the world's greatest literature.

Where's there alcohol, there's often a bar, the place where writers could congregate before there was an "online community." The bar was the place to come together, to share ideas, talk over stories or perhaps find a hint of a plot in need of fleshing out.

Now bar owner Willie Ahern has set four reminders out front, as much to celebrate his pub's important position in Ireland's literary history as to draw in paying customers who might wonder about those four bronze faces that they nearly stepped on.

A stamp?

After it's issued and sold through, it's gone but for the few stamp collectors still in existence.

But bronze?

Now that's something that will last, to be seen by countless drunks stumbling along the road, heads down as they watch for trip hazards.