A "comprehensive" anthology of Irish writing in the 20th century has been published without containing any work by James Joyce.
The section of the anthology, Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century - A Reader, devoted to Joyce has been physically removed from each copy and replaced by a notice stating that due to a copyright dispute it cannot appear.
The anthology, edited and introduced by Dr David Pierce, of the University College of Ripon and York St John, is published by Cork University Press.
A dispute arose between the publisher and the James Joyce Estate over the fee of £7,000 sterling demanded by the estate for permission to use excerpts from Joyce's work - a fee which the publisher considered excessive. It is understood the publisher was prepared to offer £2,000 Irish.
When agreement could not be reached, the publisher attempted to circumvent the estate's refusal of permission by using an excerpt from a version of Ulysses produced by Danis Rose, an Irish scholar.
This version, published initially by Macmillan in the UK and subsequently by Lilliput Press in Ireland, does not have copyright permission and is the subject of pending legal action for breach of copyright and passing off the work of James Joyce in the UK.
The James Joyce Estate obtained a High Court injunction preventing publication of the anthology on September 11th last. At a further hearing, Mr Justice Smyth suggested an excerpt from the original edition of Ulysses might be used.
The estate offered to permit use of such an excerpt at a fee to be determined by the court. However, counsel for Cork University Press said this would mean destroying the entire current print run of the book and could not be done.
At a sitting on October 30th, Mr Justice Smyth granted an interlocutory injunction (effective until the hearing of the action) to the James Joyce Estate preventing publication of the proposed Joyce excerpts in the anthology. His ruling, although not a final determination, strongly upheld the rights of the estate and appears to have convinced Cork University Press that there was no further purpose in pursuing the legal route.
A spokesman for the James Joyce Estate said other companies producing comparable anthologies - for instance, Colm Toibin's Penguin Book of Irish Fiction - had no difficulty in agreeing terms for reproduction of writings by Joyce.
The estate said the £7,000 sterling figure was the standard fee, adding that the use of an unauthorised excerpt from a work such as Danis Rose's could not be countenanced.
Ms Nancy Hawkes of Cork University Press said the company had no alternative but to publish the book without any Joyce material.
Dr Pierce described the situation as absurd and said his biggest fear was that the anthology would never come out and three years' work would go to waste.