James Joyce Museum

James Joyce's source of inspiration

Half an hour from Dublin you’ll find the picturesque seaside town of Sadycove with its Martello tower, inside which is the modest little James Joyce Museum. The tower dates from the time of the Napoleonic invasions, when it was used as a defensive fortress, and then later rented out as living space to tenants. As the story goes, the famous author of Ulysses stayed in this tower in 1904, for precisely six days: Joyce must have seen or heard something he didn’t like (people talk of an incident involving a revolver belonging to his friend and tenant Oliver St John Gogarty) because he was out of there like a shot, never to return again. Nevertheless, he gleaned enough inspiration from his short stay to give a rich atmosphere to the first chapter of his famous novel. Though you’re not likely to come across the writer’s ghost here, the museum still pays tribute to him with photos, letters and various personal effects.