Joyce, James

At the height of his literary fame, Joyce addressed this copy of The Dubliners to John Dulanty, then Irish High Commissioner to London. Known in literary and musical circles, Dulanty was a friend of Yeats and George Bernard Shaw as well as a great admirer of Joyce. Dulanty spent many London evenings in the writer’s company, along with the composer Herbert Hughes and the writers Robert and Sylvia Lynd.

By the end of July 1931 Joyce was in London, where he had somewhat belatedly married Nora Barnacle, his life partner of some 27 years, an event that had led to some scandal in the British and Irish press. This is a book that echoes back to the very beginning of their relationship: the short stories that make up Dubliners, described by Joyce as a "chapter in the moral history of my country", were begun in 1904, which was also the year he met and wooed Nora in Dublin.

A key player in Irish-British diplomacy, John Whelan Dulanty (1883-1955), represented Ireland in London for twenty years and was instrumental in its quest for independence. Born in Manchester into a working-class Irish family, he became a senior civil servant in the British Ministry of Munitions and then the Treasury. He was made a Commander of the British Empire for his war work and had a prominent ally in Winston Churchill, whom he had supported to some of his earliest election victories as a Liberal activist. However Dulanty was opposed to British policy in Ireland, so left his post in 1920 and became an Irish citizen, serving as Ireland's Trade Commissioner to Britain and High Commissioner in 1930. After the end of Ireland's membership in the British Commonwealth, he became the first Irish ambassador in London in 1950. He remains to this day the longest-serving Head of Mission in the history of Ireland's diplomatic service.

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Au faîte de sa gloire littéraire, Joyce adresse cet exemplaire des Dubliners à John Dulanty, alors haut-commissaire de l’Irlande à Londres. Connu dans les cercles littéraires et musicaux, Dulanty avait pour amis Yeats, George Bernard Shaw et était un grand admirateur de Joyce. Il passa de nombreuses soirées londoniennes avec Joyce, en compagnie du compositeur Herbert Hughes et les écrivains Robert et Sylvia Lynd.

À la date de cet envoi, Joyce était à Londres, et venait de célébrer son mariage avec sa Nora Barnacle, sa compagne depuis 27 ans, un événement présenté comme scandaleux dans la presse anglaise et irlandaise. Les Dubliners font écho au tout début de leur relation : une nouvelle qui compose le volume, que Joyce décrit comme un "chapitre de l'histoire morale de mon pays" ont été composées à partir de 1904, année de sa rencontre avec Nora à Dublin.

Acteur essentiel de la diplomatie irlando-britannique, John Whelan Dulanty (1883-1955), a représenté l'Irlande à Londres pendant vingt ans et accompagné sa lutte vers l’Indépendance. Né à Manchester dans une famille irlandaise de la classe ouvrière irlandaise, il travailla dans le British Ministry of Munitions puis au Trésor. Il fut fait Commandeur de l'Empire britanique, fut un allié important de Winston Churchill. Opposé à la politique britannique en Irlande, il quitta son poste en 1920 et devient citoyen irlandais, occupant la fonction de commissaire au commerce de l’Irlande en Grande-Bretagne, puis haut-commissaire en 1930. Lorsque l'Irlande quitte le Commonwealth, il devient le premier ambassadeur irlandais à Londres en 1950.