TEXT of letter reply from James Joyce Centre, commenting on my essay, ‘Telling Our Story; in The National
A chara,
Greetings Andrew. Many thanks for sending us your thoughtful article. Apologies for the late response. We were quite busy during Bloomsday as you could imagine.
You accurately raise James Joyce’s conscious interrogation of Irish nationalism in his work. I would agree with you that Joyce harboured nationalist views and broadly agreed with the republican movement during his time in their opposition to British rule and desire for an independent nation, even if he was not as open or directly involved with it as were some of his contemporaries like Yeats or Lady Gregory.
His relationship with Arthur Griffith is a telling and complex one. Griffith and Sinn Fein are referenced several times in Ulysses. I actually did work on this myself for my graduate studies at Trinity College Dublin. You may be familiar with Griffith’s The Resurrection of Hungary, his treatise published in 1904 (when Ulysses is set) that advocated for a dual monarchy system between Ireland and Great Britain similar to that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I believe that this book influenced Joyce in his nationalist views with regard to the feasibility of Griffith’s plan and his strategic, if not always accurate, historiography.
At any rate, we are grateful that you had Joyce in mind in articulating Scotland’s own efforts for independence. The James Joyce Centre is always happy to see how Joyce continues to influence people and movements around the world.
Please let us know if we can ever be of assistance to you. You are welcome to visit anytime — and I am confident that you would enjoy Bloomsday here.
Le meas,
Josh
Dr. Josh Q. Newman
Assistant Coordinator – The Bloomsday Festival
The James Joyce Centre
35 North Great George’s Street
Dublin 1 D01 WK44
Ireland
SCOTTISH WRITER