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Who could have imagined a cheese sandwich would play such an important role in James Joyce’s enduring legacy?

That’s what I’m thinking as I stand in front of Davy Byrnes, the last stop in a literary pub crawl through central Dublin streets packed with revelers on a Friday night this spring. Davy Byrnes is where Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce’s epic novel “Ulysses,” stops in for a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of Burgundy.

“‘Ulysses’ is kind of an episodic journey of Leopold Bloom, moving through the city meeting various characters, fair-weather friends and enemies,” explains our tour guide, Finbarr Doyle with the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, describing the best-known work from one of the 20th century’s most influential writers.

A look inside Davy Byrnes reveals that the Dublin institution has certainly modernized since Joyce’s time. Neatly draped tablecloths cover bar tables, and strategically placed wine glasses scintillate in the evening glow. But some details haven’t changed: Offered alongside organic smoked salmon, Atlantic prawns and traditional lamb stew, a gorgonzola sandwich with brown bread is still on the menu.

“Ulysses” highlights a single day — June 16, 1904 — in the lives of Bloom, his wife, Molly, and Stephen Dedalus, Joyce’s alter ego, with abstract parallels to Homer’s “Odyssey.” It’s a famously difficult read, showcasing Joyce’s jagged, stream-of-consciousness writing style, with incomplete sentences and random thoughts.

“Like a few olives too if they had them. Italian I prefer. Good glass of burgundy; take away that. Lubricate,” Joyce writes after Bloom orders the cheese sandwich. “A nice salad, cool as a cucumber. Tom Kernan can dress. Puts gusto into it. Pure olive oil. Milly served me that cutlet with a sprig of parsley. Take one Spanish onion. God made food, the devil the cooks. Devilled crab,” the passage continues.

The city’s influence on Joyce can also be seen in his collection of short stories, “Dubliners,” first published in 1914. More realistic and sombre in narrative style than “Ulysses,” the short stories reflect what Joyce considered cycles of dead ends, cultural conservatism and nationalism at the turn of the century, explains Loic Wright, an Irish Research Council scholar. “He saw Dublin as the centre of paralysis, the people stuck in their ways and not really modernizing with the rest of Europe.”

My trip to Dublin comes at a fortuitous time as 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the release of “Ulysses.” In fact, the very first book ever printed — with its dulled blue cover and simple one-word title — sits on display under dim lights in the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), which opened Sept. 2019. Located just off grassy St. Stephen’s Green, its duck-filled ponds and flower beds add a rustic feel to the city centre.

“There’s a bust of Joyce directly across the road in St. Stephen’s Green,” says museum director Simon O’Connor. “He’s just looking right at us, keeping an eye on what we’re doing.”

While MoLI highlights Irish writing spanning centuries, Joyce’s works are front and centre, with copies of his books and handwritten scratch notebooks; one, used for drafts of “Ulysses,“ is criss-crossed with streaks of red, green and blue crayon edits.

The museum is part of the University College Dublin, in the same building where Joyce attended classes. In the courtyard, I approach a towering ash tree, the same one seen in a famous 1902 graduation photo of Joyce with other students and faculty.

Looking for other places to follow in Joyce’s footsteps, I pass by the National Library of Ireland with its stately domed reading room. A lot of University College Dublin students would hang out at the library, as do “Ulysses“ characters Dedalus and roommate Buck Mulligan. “Joyce went there quite a lot,” says Wright, “and on one famous occasion after he had an altercation with his house mate, the head librarian remembers opening the door in the morning and seeing Joyce asleep on the steps.”

Joyce also frequented Marsh’s Library, dating back to 1707 and still in use today, where “Gulliver’s Travels” author Jonathan Swift researched and where “Dracula” writer Bram Stoker read ghost stories, says Wright. “You really get the sense that you’re walking into the same hall that Joyce was in. It’s so untouched by modernity, and seeing his inscription and signature on the registration is even more compelling.”

A must-see for Joyce fans is Sweny’s Pharmacy, where Leopold buys Molly lemon-scented soap — and yes, you can still purchase it there today. The site is now a cultural icon, with the Victorian shop interiors still intact, where volunteers conduct Joyce’s book readings.

Another fan favourite is the James Joyce Centre, which features walking tours, now resuming after a pandemic hiatus. Tours include walks around the north inner city of Joyce’s teenage years, in particular to 7 Eccles Street, where Leopold and Molly live.

“When you go there now, the building is torn down, but the houses across the street are all the exact same,” notes Wright. “You really get a sense of the class dynamic.”

Joyce spent most of his life outside Dublin, including in Trieste, Italy, and Paris and Zurich, where he died in 1941. But growing up in the Irish capital guided his pen to create a legacy that now includes Bloomsday, a festival celebrating Joyce and “Ulysses” every June 16 in Ireland and beyond.

“Joyce records in his work a kind of fundamental humour and character of the city and its people,” says O’Connor. “What I find really interesting is 100 years after ‘Ulysses’ was published, so much of that humour and character still exist.”

“Sitting in bars and talking to locals will give you as much of the character of Dublin he described 100 years ago as anything will.”

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