Sweny's Pharmacy

This guide to Sweny's Pharmacy in Dublin follows the little chemist's shop from its 1847 opening through the day James Joyce sent Leopold Bloom in for lotion and a bar of lemon soap that goes on to trail through the rest of Ulysses. You'll hear how the real pharmacy dispensed prescriptions for over a century and a half before closing in 2009, and about the volunteer who refused to let the door stay shut, turning up most days in a white chemist's coat to read Joyce aloud. The guide follows the shop into a more recent crisis, when a rent letter threatened to end the story for good.