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

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I am pleased to hear that progress is being made in terms of the commemoration of Ulysses. I welcome the detail contained with the reply.

It is fair to say James Joyce had a difficult relationship with Ireland. He probably would be surprised that, in a national Parliament, Members are standing up to commemorate the publication of his great book 100 years ago. I do not think he would have envisaged he would have the support and appreciation of the Irish people that is manifested by us all today.

We need to look at doing something bigger to commemorate James Joyce. I ask that the Minister of State would bring some of the following ideas to the attention of the Minister with responsibility for culture. They may be good or bad ideas, and if rejected, I do not mind, but we do need to do something significant to commemorate James Joyce. In travelling around the world one passes through Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. My first idea is to change the name of Dublin Airport to James Joyce International Airport. It would give a real indication of the appreciation and value we place on a literary figure. It would also be a slight shift of emphasis from a very dignified, historic past where we commemorate people involved in politics or military struggles.

There would also be a certain irony in Dublin Airport, a place from where people leave the country, being named after James Joyce.

I will raise a more contentious issue. I will be interested to hear what people like Deputy Durkan think about this. I went to Zurich a couple of years ago with two friends. We got a tram up the mountain to Fluntern Cemetery. The back of it is a lonely place. You go in through a gate and Joyce's grave is at the back of the graveyard. It is a lonely spot and there are very few other graves around his. When he died, Nora Barnacle was interested in having his body brought back to be buried in Ireland. That is something we should give consideration to. It is a contentious issue and people may disagree with it. Joyce has no family descendants alive to object to it, but we as a country need to give recognition and thought to bringing home our most famous child.

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