James Joyce’s Son is a Litigious Wanker

Want to stage a public reading of Joyce’s Ulysses next Bloomsday? Make sure Joyce’s son Stephen doesn’t find out about it. He’ll sue your pants off.

Few are spared. He has targeted publishing houses, internet readings, and an Edinburgh fringe musical using Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from Ulysses. An Irish composer who requested permission to quote 18 words of Finnegans Wake received a refusal letter saying: “To put it politely, my wife and I don’t like your music.”

But now, fearful for this month’s mammoth celebrations of Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses, Irish MPs this week rushed through emergency legislation that will prevent Mr Joyce from suing the Government and the National Library over an exhibition which displays 500 pages of Joyce manuscripts…

So much for Joyce’s commitment to freedom of expression.