Joyce's Dublin

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Joyce's Dublin
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• The most important places which testify the
  role of James Joyce in Dublin are all recollected
  in the events and celebrations of Bloomsday.
• Bloomsday is a commemoration observed
  annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to
  celebrate the life of the Irish writer and relive
  the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which
  took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The
  day is a secular holiday in Ireland. The name
  derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of
  Ulysses, and 16 June was the date of Joyce's
  first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle,
  when they walked to the Dublin village of
  Ringsend.
• These are the main points of a Joycean walk
  in Dublin
• - James Joyce Center
• - James Joyce Tower
• - Davys Byrnes pub
• - The Dublin Writers Museum

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The James Joyce Center

• The James Joyce Centre is located on North Great
  George's Street around the corner from O'Connell
  Street in a beautifully restored 18th century
  townhouse.This house was built in 1784 by
  Francis Ryan for Valentine Brown, the Earl of
  Kenmare, who used it as his townhouse. The
  plasterwork here was done by Michael Stapleton,
  one of the finest stuccadores of the time. The
  house was given special mention by Constantine
  Curran in his book Dublin Decorative Plasterwork
  of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, and
  the photographs he took were essential to the
  restoration of the house. Curran was also a close
  friend of Joyces.
• In the eighteenth century this area of Dublin was
  very fashionable but it fell into decline in the
  nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By 1982
  twelve houses on this street had been demolished
  by the City Council as dangerous buildings,
  including the house next door. Number 35 was
  saved by Senator David Norris, a Joycean scholar
  who also lives on the street. With the help of
  many others and with funding from a variety of
  sources the work was completed and the Centre
  opened in June 1996. The Centre has been run for
  ten years by members of the Monaghan family,
  descendents of Joyces sister May.
• Though Joyce never lived in this house, he has a
  connection with it through Prof. Denis J. Maginni
  who ran a Dance Academy here. Originally his name
  was Maginn, but he added an extra i to make it
  more Italian sounding in keeping with his exotic
  profession. Maginni was a well-known and
  colourful character in Dublin and appears several
  times in James Joyces Ulysses.

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The James Joyce Center

• In the Wandering Rocks episode he is described
  as wearing a silk hat, slate frockcoat with silk
  facings, white kerchief tie, tight lavender
  trousers, canary gloves and pointed patent
  boots. The Maginni Room, now the Café Ulysses,
  was originally the dining room of the house. The
  plasterwork is original, though the dancing
  figures in the medallions date from Maginnis
  time. Though damaged, the plasterwork was mainly
  preserved under layers of paint and dirt.The
  Guinness LibraryThe Library contains many
  translations of Joyces works, volumes about
  Joyce and his work, and other books of interest
  to Joyceans. Visitors are welcome to browse the
  shelves, and to sit and read.The Kenmare Room is
  named in honour of the Earl of Kenmare whose
  townhouse this was when it was built in 1784. The
  plasterwork had disappeared completely by 1982
  and was restored using photographs taken by
  Joyces friend, Constantine Curran. The
  Charioteer with Winged Horses that you see here
  is also found in the library at Belvedere College
  and was a favourite theme of Michael Stapleton,
  the stuccadore.
• (Joyce studied at home and briefly at the
  Christian Brothers school on North Richmond
  Street, Dublin, then he was offered a place in
  the Jesuits' Dublin school, Belvedere College, in
  1893. The offer was made at least partly in the
  hope that he would prove to have a vocation and
  join the Order. Belvedere College is a private
  secondary school for boys located on Great
  Denmark Street. The College was founded in 1832
  and celebrated its sesquicentenary (150th
  anniversary) in 1982.
• The school currently has in excess of 850 pupils
  enrolled and has a number of famous alumni in the
  world of the arts, politics, sport, science and
  business). On the walls here are reproductions of
  portraits of members of Joyces family.

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The James Joyce Center

• His mother May Murray (sketched from photographs
  by her great grandson Declan Joyce) his father
  John Stanislaus Joyce (this portrait commissioned
  by Joyce himself from the Irish portrait artist
  Patrick Tuohy in 1923, the year after Ulysses was
  published).The Joyce family lived in houses
  similar to this one, though not in this one, and
  on the table in the Library is a folder with a
  list of Joyces Dublin addresses with photographs
  and details. Two portraits of Joyce hang in the
  Library, one by Jacques Emile Blanche, and one by
  Irish artist Harry Kernoff. (These are copies,
  the originals being part of the Poetry and Rare
  Books Collection at the State University of New
  York at Buffalo).Back on the ground floor, if
  you continue outside to the yard, you will see
  the original door from No. 7 Eccles Street. In
  Ulysses this is Leopold Blooms address, but the
  house itself was demolished to make way for an
  extension to the Mater Hospital, though the door
  was saved and is on loan to us.

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The James Joyce Tower

• The Joyce Tower in Sandycove is famous as the
  setting for the opening of James Joyces Ulysses,
  now acclaimed as the greatest and most
  influential novel of the twentieth century. One
  of a series of Martello Towers built around
  Dublin in 1804 to withstand an invasion by
  Napoleon, it was opened in 1962 as a museum
  devoted to the life and works of James Joyce, who
  is known worldwide as the writer most closely
  associated with his native Dublin.Dramatically
  located on a cliff-top overlooking the sea, the
  tower stands eight miles south of Dublin on the
  coast road. It clearly impressed Joyce, whose
  brief stay here in 1904 inspired the opening of
  Ulysses.Objects in the museum bring Joyce and
  his works vividly to life. The collection
  includes letters, photographs, portraits and
  personal possessions of Joyce, some of them given
  by close friends such as Samuel Beckett, Maria
  Jolas, Sylvia Beach and Paul Ruggiero - his tie
  and wallet, his cabin trunk, guitar and cane are
  among these. There are first and rare editions of
  his work, including his early broadsides and the
  celebrated edition of Ulysses illustrated by
  Henri Matisse. Items such as the original key of
  the Tower, a Clongowes pandybat, a Plumtrees pot
  and photographs of Throwaway and Davy Stephens
  are examples of the real and ordinary which Joyce
  transformed into the material of myth

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Davys Byrnes Pub

• The literary giant with which Davy Byrnes is
  synonymous is of course James Joyce. A regular
  visitor to the premises Joyce developed a special
  relationship with the warm but abstemious
  proprietor. Joyces Dubliners has mention of
  Davy Byrnes, but the Joycean character with which
  the premises are most associated is Leopold
  Bloom, of Ulysses
• He entered Davy Byrnes. Moral pub. He doesnt
  chat, stands a drink now and then. But in a leap
  year once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.
• Inside Bloom meets his friend Nosey Flynn who
  engages Davy Byrne in chat and Bloom partakes of
  his famous gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of
  Burgundy. Nosey Flynn then asks Davy Byrne for a
  tip for the Ascot Gold Cup, to which the
  proprietor retorts
• Im off that Mr Flynn, Davy Byrne answered. I
  never put anything on a horse.
• Since Ulysses publication in 1922 there has
  been a constant literary pilgrimage to Davy
  Byrnes. The recent revival of Bloomsday, 16th
  June, has seen a wide literary and international
  tourist audience attracted to the premises who
  wish to savour, like Leopold Bloom, a gorgonzola
  sandwich and glass of burgundy.

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The Dublin Writers Museum

• Housed in a restored Georgian mansion in Parnell
  Square, the design of the building alone is
  enough reason to visit. The notable plasterwork
  in the first floor gallery of writers attracts
  almost as many visitors who are interested in
  design as the museum attracts those with an
  interest in literature. The Dublin Writers
  Museum was established to promote interest,
  through its collection, displays and activities,
  in Irish literature as a whole and in the lives
  and works of individual Irish writers. All of the
  writers featured in the Dublin Writers Museum are
  those who have made an important contribution to
  Irish or international literature or to the
  literature of Dublin. The museum strives to give
  a view of Irish literature from a Dublin
  perspective. Visitors to the Irish Writers Museum
  are allowed to view several of the personal
  possessions of Dublins most famous writers and
  can take in several magnificent portraits of
  these literary giants.