It’s been 80 years since the death of James Joyce in 1941.
For Ireland Reads day on 25 February, we are revisiting “a very fine piece of writing”, a short story from the Dubliners: Ivy Day in the Committee Room, which we invite you to enter through these lines and follow it in any direction you like: “They’re Castle hacks….”
Ivy day in the committee room from Joyce’s Dubliners
“Some of these hillsiders and fenians are a bit too clever if ask me,” said Mr. Henchy. “Do you know what my private and candid opinion is about some of those little jokers? I believe half of them are in the pay of the Castle.”
“There’s no knowing,” said the old man.
“O, but I know it for a fact,” said Mr. Henchy. “They’re Castle hacks…. I don’t say Hynes…. No, damn it, I think he’s a stroke above that…. But there’s a certain little nobleman with a cock-eye — you know the patriot I’m alluding to?”