The James Joyce Tower and Museum is a

Martello tower Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand u ...

Sandycove Sandycove () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is southeast of Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, and northwest of Dalkey. It is a popular seaside resort and is well known for its bathing place, the Forty Foot, which in the past was reserved for ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, where

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

spent six nights in 1904. The opening scenes of his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' take place here, and the tower is a place of pilgrimage for Joyce enthusiasts, especially on

Bloomsday Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' takes place in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his ...

. Admission is free.

History

The tower was leased from the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

by Joyce's university friend Oliver St. John Gogarty, with the purpose of " Hellenising" Ireland. Joyce stayed there for six days, from 9 to 14 September in 1904. Gogarty later attributed Joyce's abrupt departure to a midnight incident with a loaded revolver. The opening scenes of '' Ulysses'' are set the morning after this incident. Gogarty is immortalised as "Stately, plump

Buck Mulligan Malachi Roland St. John "Buck" Mulligan is a fictional character in James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. He appears most prominently in episode 1 ''(Telemachus)'', and is the subject of the novel's famous first sentence: "Stately, plump Buck ...

" (the opening words of the novel). The tower now contains a museum dedicated to Joyce and displays some of his possessions and other ephemera associated with ''Ulysses'' (e.g., "Plumtree's

Potted Meat Potted meat is a form of traditional food preservation in which hot cooked meat is placed in a pot, tightly packed to exclude air, and then covered with hot fat. As the fat cools, it hardens and forms an airtight seal, preventing some spoilage by ...

" pot). The living space is set up to resemble its 1904 appearance, and contains a ceramic

panther Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **'' Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. *** Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in So ...

to represent one seen in a dream by a resident. It is a place of pilgrimage for Joyce enthusiasts, especially on

. It was purchased in 1954 by architect Michael Scott who, in 1937, built his house, ''Geragh'', next door, on a former quarry. In 1962, he donated the tower for the purpose of making it a museum. Michael Scott is co-founder, with financial assistance by John Huston, of the James Joyce Museum at the Joyce Tower. The Tower became a museum opening on 16 June 1962 through the efforts of Dublin artist John Ryan. Ryan also rescued the front door to

7 Eccles Street 7 Eccles Street was a row house in Dublin, Ireland. It was the home of Leopold Bloom, protagonist of the novel '' Ulysses'' (1922) by James Joyce. The house was demolished in 1967, and the site is now occupied by the Mater Private Hospital. His ...

(now at the James Joyce Centre) from demolition and organised, with Brian O'Nolan, the first

Celebration in 1954. The James Joyce Tower is open Thursday-Sunday , 10am-4pm Admission is free, though visits can be booked in advance on the website for a small donation. The museum is run by the Friends of Joyce Tower Society on a voluntary basis. File:James Joyce Tower and Museum2.JPG, Barry McGovern reads ''Ulysses'', ''Bloomsday'', 2009 File:Martelo dublin view.JPG, North view from above the tower, 2009 File:James Joyce Tower and Museum, living area (1).jpg, Living area in the tower, 2019 File:Dún Laoghaire sandy cove.jpg, Michael Scott's 1937 white

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

house, ''Geragh'', Joyce Tower,

References

External links

Official website
Towers completed in 1804 Buildings and structures in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Museums in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Biographical museums in the Republic of Ireland James Joyce Towers in the Republic of Ireland Literary museums in Ireland Martello towers {{ireland-museum-stub

History

See also

References

External links