James Joyce Centre

About

The James Joyce Centre is a museum and cultural centre in Dublin, Ireland, dedicated to promoting the life and works of James Joyce and Irish literature, culture and history. It was founded in 1982. The James Joyce Centre is situated in a restored 18th-century Georgian townhouse at 35 North Great George's Street, dating from a time when north inner city Dublin was at the height of its grandeur.

It was built in 1784 for Valentine Browne, 1st Earl of Kenmare. At the end of the 19th century, the ground floor parlour room was used as a dance studio by Denis Maginni, who was featured in Ulysses as "Mr Denis J Maginni, Professor of Dancing &c." In November 1911, it held the inaugural meeting of the Dublin Vigilance Committee, a group of concerned clergymen and others pledged to “grapple with the terrible traffic of immoral literature carried on in the most public and shameless manner.” During the Irish revolutionary period, the house was used simultaneously by British Army officers for dance gatherings and by Irish republicans as a clandestine meeting place and weapons depot. In 1920, Michael Collins assembled the Squad in the house.

By the 1980s, the house had fallen into disrepair and...