 In the 20th century , Ireland produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature : George Bernard Shaw , William Butler Yeats , Samuel <unk> and Seamus Heaney . Although not a Nobel Prize winner , James Joyce is widely considered to be one of the most significant writers of the 20th century . Joyce 's 1922 novel Ulysses is considered one of the most important works of <unk> literature and his life is celebrated annually on 16 June in Dublin as " <unk> " . Modern Irish literature is often connected with its rural heritage through writers such as John <unk> and poets such as Seamus Heaney . 
