Just back from a week in Dublin where Harald Beck and I checked out some Joyce-related sites, including

• the Martello Tower at Sandycove (where we took measurements to see whether the action as described in Telemachus was feasible);
• Paddy Dignam’s house in Newbridge Avenue, where Bloom joins the funeral in Hades;
• the end of Leahy Terrace, where Bloom views Gertie McDowell on the strand (which is no longer there, as the land has been reclaimed) in Nausicaa;
• the Star of the Sea church, which also appears in Nausicaa;
• Clifton School in Dalkey, where Joyce taught briefly for a few months in early 1904 before leaving Ireland with Nora.

To go the extra mile, we also went to a Finnegans Wake reading seminar at Trinity College. During the two-hour session we covered one and a half pages. There’s another one next week if you happen to be in Dublin …