DUBLIN - Ireland 2014 - page 133

masterpiece called Ulysses . For more on Irish literature (and to see which of these
writers won the Nobel Prize), see here .
Background: James Joyce (1882-1941) was born and raised in Dublin, wrote in great
detail about his hometown, and mined the local dialect for his pitch-perfect dialogue. His
best-known work, Ulysses , chronicles one day in the life of the fictional Leopold Bloom
(June 16, 1904) as he wanders through the underside of Dublin. In his own life, Joyce left
Dublin (on June 17, 1904) to live in Paris. He never took up the cause of Irish national-
ism and rarely delved into Irish mythology. His focus was the Modernist question of how
to find one's place in a post-religious world without traditional guidelines. His stream-of-
consciousness writing style (which, truthfully, can be hard to follow and often boring) is
meant to mimic the multiple strains of thought running through a person's mind at any one
moment. Joyce's frank depictions of sexuality helped employ two generations of censors
in Ireland and America.
Visiting the Centre: Your visit begins (top floor) with videos on Joyce's life and his
enormous influence on subsequent writers. Next, a touchscreen display traces Bloom's
Dublin Odyssey. Photos of Joyce and quotes from his books decorate the walls. A recre-
ation of a messy, cramped study evokes Joyce's struggles through poverty and criticism
as he forged his own path. Down one flight, see portraits of Joyce and his wife and muse,
Nora Barnacle. (The first time they, um, went on a date was June 16, 1904.) On the ground
floor, a film version of one of Joyce's short stories, The Dead , plays eternally. In a tiny
back courtyard, you can see the original door from 7 Eccles Street, the address of Leopold
Bloom.
▲ Hugh Lane Gallery
This collection of mostly modern and contemporary art has a sampling of Impressionist
masterpieces that come from the gallery's founding collection, once owned by Sir Hugh
Lane. Genteel and bite-sized, the museum is particularly worth a visit for a well-known
Monet painting, an exhibit on modern artist Francis Bacon, and a few select paintings by
Irish artists.
Cost and Hours: Free, Tue-Thu 10:00-18:00, Fri-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun 11:00-17:00,
closed Mon, Parnell Square North, tel. [phone], www.hughlane.ie .
Visiting the Gallery: Head to Room 1, where you'll find Monet's Waterloo Bridge
(1900). On a visit to London, the once-bohemian, now-famous Impressionist Claude Mon-
et checked into Room 618 of the Savoy Hotel and set to work painting Waterloo Bridge at
different times ofdayandinvarious weather conditions. This painting isthe best knownof