The National Library of Ireland acquires its of manuscripts and research materials "not just to have and store them, but to be used by scholars and by those interested. And in this book we find a justification for what we've been doing".
So said Dr Tony Scott, chair of the library's board of trustees, at a reception to mark the publication of Ulysses Unbound, a new reader's companion to Joyce's literary perambulation, written by Joycean scholar and Irish Times journalist, Terence Killeen.
Praising, with a wry smile that recalled the pair's time together as sub-editors, Killeen's "clean, clearly written style", his former colleague, novelist John Banville, expressed his thanks for the book's detailed glossary. For those trips to Germany, he said, it's always useful to know that Frauenzimmer means "sloven" and not "ladies' room".
Killeen was joined by friends and family, including his wife, Noreen, daughter Anna (her sister, Elizabeth, was in England) and proud mother Breda, as well as Nick Maxwell, of Wordwell Books, which co-published Ulysses Unbound with the National Library. Also there to congratulate him were historian Tim Pat Coogan, former director of the library Brendan O'Donoghue, Dr Muriel McCarthy of Marsh's Library, head of news at RTÉ Ed Mulhall, Catherine Marshall of IMMA, Profs John Horgan of DCU and Lucy McDiarmid of Villanova in Philadelphia. McDiarmid's own book, The Irish Art of Controversy, is in train, and among those looking forward to it is Dr Margaret McCurtain, who is enjoying her retirement. Mary Cloake was gearing up to her new job as director of the Arts Council and filmmaker Louis Marcus, who is working on a documentary for TG4 about the banning of books by Frank O'Connor and Eric Cross in the 1940s, was also there.
The Joyceans were out in force, among them writers Peter Costello and Vivien Igoe. Robert Nicholson, curator of the Martello Tower in Sandycove, said it had been "mad busy" since Bloomsday and he is looking forward to the tower's centenary in September, which marks the anniversary of Joyce's six-day stay there. Dr Luca Crispi and his wife, Stacey Herbert, were in Dublin from their home university in Buffalo, New York, to work on the National Library's James Joyce and Ulysses exhibition. Next up, Finnegans Wake? "It's possible," said Killeen, "but give me a break!"