Happy Birthday Mr Joyce
James Joyce’s Ulysses was published on February 2nd 1922 – Joyce’s 40th birthday.
The novel opens with Buck Mulligan on the top of the martello tower in Sandycove, Co Dublin.
“He mounted to the parapet again and gazed out over Dublin bay, his fair
oakpale hair stirring slightly.
— God, he said quietly. Isn’t the sea what Algy calls it: a great sweet
mother? The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.”
Joyce loved puns: Algy – algae.
Speaking of algae, which spoils beaches around our coastline every summer, the quality of water in Dublin Bay has greatly improved in the past 100 years.
Happy Birthday Mr Joyce.