Madam, – I would like to confirm the identity of the fourth person in The Irish Timescommemorative magazine Bloomsday photograph (page 75). He was the late Tom Joyce, a distant relative of James Joyce and also a second cousin of mine.
It is recorded in Jackson and Costello’s biography of John Stanislaus Joyce, father of James Joyce,that Tom Joyce went to the first Bloomsday commemoration on June 16th, 1954, with Brian O’Nolan (Flann O’Brien), John Ryan, Anthony Cronin and AJ Leventhal, a friend of Samuel Beckett. He went to the event, on his own initiative, to represent the wider Joyce family.
During their jaunt they paused at a pub in Irishtown, hoping to hear a broadcast of the Ascot Gold Cup. Here, Tom Joyce regaled the party in a fine tenor voice with a rendering of one James Joyce's favourite songs, Silent, O Moyle.
I hope this information will resolve the issue and conclude by adding my best wishes on your well-deserved anniversary. – Yours, etc,