Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday marked the centenary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses. It is an event that deserves to be commemorated and recognised by this State. Over the past ten years, we have engaged with a lot of commemoration in terms of the important historic political events we have commemorated, including the commemoration of the Irish involvement in the First World War, the Easter Rising of 1916, the meeting of the First Dáil in 1919 and the War of Independence. All of those are commendable, political, military events that deserve to be commemorated. However, we cannot just view the progress of the Irish State in terms of political or military developments. It is very important we recognise the publication of Ulysses, the centenary of which took place yesterday. International commentary on the events I have outlined shows the event that got much more commentary and recognition was the publication of Ulyssesby James Joyce. Recognition for that goes to Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company in Paris, which published the book in 1922. Let it be clear, that book would not have been published in Ireland. There was great difficulty getting it published anywhere. Ms Beach and Shakespeare and Company deserve recognition.

What Joyce delivered was a remarkable literary achievement. The study of Ulyssesand the works of James Joyce have gone through an extraordinary transformation over the past 40 to 50 years. Forty to 50 years ago, Joyce was regarded as a bit of an intellectual oddity. That has changed significantly now. We can now see he was one of the great literary figures of the 20th century. Literature probably was the dominant art form in that century and James Joyce was its Michelangelo. We should be extremely proud he was an Irishman and, as I am, extremely proud he was a Dubliner.

We need to note that James Joyce's work is not just of benefit and use for those who are literary scholars. Every year, huge numbers of tourists come to Dublin because they have an interest in James Joyce and his works. We need to recognise where the State is failing in its duty to commemorate and support that memory of James Joyce. There are some events which are protected, including the James Joyce Centre, which a Member of the Houses of the Oireachtas has been instrumental in protecting over the years, and the James Joyce Institute. The State should be doing much more. I will give a couple of examples. I refer to James Joyce House on Usher's Quay, where The Dead, one of his great stories, is based. We seem to be acting as bystanders in looking at that house. We need to recognise it is an important part of Joyce's history and Irish history that deserves to be preserved. In Sandycove, there is the James Joyce Tower, in respect of which the State has played a very limited role. That should be a shrine to James Joyce and something we, as a State, should value it immensely. A couple of years ago when I was a member of Dublin City Council we had a huge task of work to ensure Sweny's chemist on Westland Row remained open because of a rates bill that was being imposed on it.

As a State, we need to do more to commemorate and protect the memory of James Joyce and his literary works. I would be interested to know what the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has planned to ensure that occurs. I look forward to hearing the response of the Minister of State.

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