Sir, - Mr Mac Coisdealbh (June 26th) on "the author who hated Dublin" should be less inclined to chastise those who choose to paint the face of genius onto the obscure - never mind the ten pound note - when he himself succumbs to neat, superficial generalisations. Yes, it is very easy to deify, but it is also simple to demonise. Both routes deprive the victim of his/her humanity.
Some Victorian editions of the Collected Shakespeare were housed in miniature, ornate temples before which one would genuflect before pulling the little curtain string and flipping through the pages of the almighty. I doubt whether Shakespeare would have approved of such but I think it's safe to assume how Joyce would have reacted to the same rigmarole. When a devout fan asked could he shake the hand that wrote Ulysses, Joyce replied that he could but that he should know that that hand had done a lot more besides.
As regards Joyce's "hatred" of Dublin, his feelings were as volatile as in any relationship. In a letter he writes: "Sometimes thinking of Ireland it seems to me that I have been unnecessarily harsh. I have reproduced (in Dub- liners at least) none of the attractions of the city for I have never felt at my ease in any city since I left it except in Paris." Joyce was a self-proclaimed exile, despising his home while in it and seeing it for what it is from afar.
Let's agree to cast a critical eye on those who wish to eulogise or denounce and to always give the author the last word: "I do not know where the British and American papers get their scare headlines about me. I have never given an interview in my life and do not receive journalists. Nor do I understand why they should consider an unread writer good copy." - Yours, etc., Simon Fitzmaurice,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.