Clergyman and satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin. He studied at Trinity College, moving to England to become secretary to the diplomat Sir William Temple. During a visit to Ireland in 1695 he was ordained in the Anglican Church and went on to be Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral from 1713 until 1745. During this time he was an ardent advocate of the rights of the Irish people, writing pamphlets and religious and political essays. It is for his satirical works that he is best remembered, most famously Gulliver's Travels, often regarded as a children's book, but in reality a powerful exposé of the stupidity of humankind.

The greatest exponent of the Dublin character among Irish writers, James Joyce (1882-1941) wrote of his home town in novels and short stories such as Ulysses and Dubliners. His work revolutionized the novel form with his exploration of language and by breaking away from an ordinary plot - using the technique known as the `stream of consciousness'. He spent much of his adult life abroad, leaving Dublin in 1910 and travelling to Trieste and Zurich, before finally setting up home in Paris.

Ireland's greatest music export and one of the world's most successful rock bands was conceived in 1977 in the Mount Temple School in Dublin. The four school friends first used the name U2 in 1978 and played some of their earliest gigs at the Dandelion Market in Dublin. By the 1980s U2 were well established at the forefront of the local rock scene and it wasn't long before they hit the big time. They went on to perform all over the world, but their roots have stayed firmly in Dublin and they still live, work and play in the city. In 2000 they were awarded Freedom of the City.