History
More than 40 Years of the James Joyce Centre
35 North Great George’s Street was built in 1784 for Valentine Brown, the Earl of Kenmare, who used it as his townhouse. In the eighteenth century, this area of Dublin was very fashionable but it fell into decline in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the house was bought by the Graham family who let part of the building to a Mr Maginn. Maginn opened a dancing academy and ballroom on the premises and advertised himself as “Mr Denis J Maginni, Professor of Dancing &c” and it is under this title that he appears in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
By 1982, twelve houses on North Great George’s Street had been demolished by Dublin City Council including the house next door. A group of campaigners managed to save No. 35 from demolition. On 16 June 1982 — the year that marked the centenary of James Joyce’s birth and the day on which Ulysses is set, affectionally known as “Bloomsday” — the keys were handed over to Senator David Norris on behalf of the James Joyce Centre. With the help of many others (such as the North Great George’s Street Preservation Society) and with funding from a variety of sources, the building was renovated and the Centre was opened to the public in June 1996.
For over ten years, the Centre was run by members of the Joyce and Monaghan families, descendants of Joyce’s brother Charles Joyce and sister May Monaghan. It it now maintained by a staff of scholars and museum professionals dedicated to promoting the life and legacy of James Joyce as well as Ireland’s rich literary heritage.
The entrance to the James Joyce Centre on North Great George’s Street in Dublin
Don’t eat a beefsteak. If you do the eyes of that cow will pursue you through all eternity.
