The James Joyce Centre

the Centre is in a restored Georgian townhouse about 200 metres from my hotel. the exhibit filled all three floors and the postage stamp-sized backyard. the top floor had a small theatre were 3 short films looped. there was a lecture hall and a series of family portraits on the second floor. the first floor held a café and a store with mugs, t-shirts, and the usual tourist crap.



in Joyce’s novel Ulysses the Bloom family lived at number 7 Eccles Street, Dublin. like many of the novel’s settings, there really is a number 7 Eccles Street and the James Joyce Centre was given the original front door:



a group of twenty somethings walked through the Centre while i was there. the group was loud. i heard them moving from floor to floor. they were ina nd out in under twenty minutes. let’s see: 20 twenty somethings x €5 = too much to tour 4 just twenty minutes.

i was mesmerized all afternoon. i need to reread Ulysses.