Sir, - In his article on Hugh Maguire (March 19th) Kevin Myers asserts that in 1896 James Joyce was a pupil at Clongowes. Of course Joyce was not. In April 1893, he entered Belvedere College and three years later was well on his way to star pupil status.
From being the shy and sensitive Clongowes creature depicted with such shivering perception in Portrait of the Artist, he had become a fervent member of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a burgeoning adolescent sexuality realised on occasional nocturnal forays around his native city. Although still the "youngster" to which Mr Myers alludes, he was beginning to discover in himself and Victorian Catholic Dublin, those tensions out of which his distinctive vision of modern Ireland would emerge. - Yours, etc.,
Stockwell Street,
Drogheda, Co Louth.