BEFORE ULYSSES
Joyce family and James Joyce’s Addresses 1880-1915
THE following list details the addresses at which James Joyce stayed between his birth on 2 February 1882 and 16 June 1915, shortly before leaving Austria for Switzerland, when he wrote to his brother Stanislaus claiming that he had written the first episode of his new novel Ulysses.
See also 1915-1922 Addresses (Ulysses) and 1922-1941 Addresses (Finnegans Wake).
The Joyce family relocated so very many times in Dublin — see Vivian Igoe, James Joyce’s Dublin Houses & Nora Barnacle’s Galway (London: Mandarin, 1990) — that it is useful to have a simple directory of addresses to refer to. I append this below. Here and there, exact dates are hard to come by. Of the houses they lived in, John Stanislaus Joyce owned only one, the small residence at 7, St. Peter’s Terrace, Phibsborough (Cabra).
In those years, renting properties in Dublin was a simple matter. The metropolis was under something of a financial cloud, and many houses were vacant and to let. Also, ‘proof’ of reliability (in terms of paying rent) was easily acquired by defaulters (among whom was John Stanislaus): suggest to a landlord that one will move out on receipt of some note indicating full and unhindered payment of past rent. For the landlord it was better to have the house vacant than occupied by non-payers. This ‘evidence’ of reliance could then be used as assurance to the next landlord.
Code: 12 October = date; *12 October = estimated date; 12/14 October = a day on or between 12 October and 14 October.
RATHMINES
13 Ontario Terrace (Summer 1880-March 1881)
John Joyce and Mary Jane (May) Murray were married on 5 May 1880. Returning from honeymooning in London, moved into this, their first house together in Dublin.
Their firstborn, John Augustine, was born here on 23 November 1880. He survived only eight days. A plot in in Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin, was purchased for his burial. On his father’s death in 1931 Joyce had a headstone erected, but he included only the names of his parents. The cemetery records list the following:
John Augustine Joyce. 13 Ontario Tce, 8 days, 1/12/1880
Margaret Teresa Murray, 7 Upr. Clanbrassil St, 50 yrs, 26/1/1881
Frederick William Joyce, 2 Millbourne Ave, 2 weeks, 1/8/1895
Mary Jane Joyce, 7 St Peter’s Tce, 44 years, 13/8/1903
John Stanislaus Joyce, 25 Claude Rd, 82 yrs, 19/12/1931
Eva Mary Joyce, 12 Mountjoy Sq, 62 yr approx. [63], 25/11/54
This list is incomplete. George Alfred Joyce, 32 Glengariff Parade, 14 yrs, 3/5/1902, and Mabel Josephine Anne (Baby) Joyce, Fever Hospital, Cork St, 17 yrs, 12/7/1911, are buried here too. Margaret Teresa Murray, the second interred, was James Joyce’s maternal grandmother.
Joyce’s other sisters, Eileen (73 yrs, 27/1/1963), Margaret (Poppie) (80 yrs, ?/3/1964), Mary (May) (76 yrs, 8/5/1966) and Florence (Florrie) (80 yrs, 3/9/1972), and his two remaining brothers, Charlie (54 yrs, 4/2/1941) and Stanislaus (70 yrs, 16/6/1955), are buried elsewhere.
PORTOBELLO
30 Emorville Avenue (March-Summer 1881)
KINGSTOWN
47 Northumberland Avenue (Summer-late 1881)
RATHGAR
41 Brighton Square (late 1881-Spring 1884)
James, ‘baby tuckoo’, is born at home on 2 February 1882.
RATHMINES
23 Castlewood Avenue (Spring 1884-30 April 1887)
In May 1884, Mrs Elizabeth Conway (‘Dante’) moves in as governess.
BRAY
1 Martello Terrace (1 May 1887-October 1891)
SALLINS, COUNTY KILDARE
Clongowes Wood College (1 September 1888-June 1891)
Joyce resides here as a boarder, coming home only during the school holidays.
He is recalled home in June 1891, either through illness or John’s impecunity, or both.
Parnell dies, 7 October 1891.
BLACKROCK
“Leoville”, 23 Carysfort Avenue (October 1891-late 1892)
The house is approached through two gate piers supporting stone lions. The inner sanctum is past a front door displaying Dante and Beatrice on its stained-glass front.
Joyce is left to his own devices.
Christmas dinner row, 25 December 1891.
Dante (‘that old bitch upstairs’) leaves in a huff early 1892.
DUBLIN NORTH CENTRAL
29 Hardwicke Street (late 1892-early 1893)
Located near Mountjoy Square, this street boasted 7 tenements—large decaying town houses with multiple tenants—in 1893, 10 in 1898, and 18 in 1910.
14 Fitzgibbon Street (early 1893-November 1894)
This gaunt four-storied unfurnished and uncarpeted building was exceptionally ‘bare and cheerless’. The high Georgian rooms were, moreover, impossible to keep warm.
For a short period Joyce attends the non-fee-paying Christian Brother School in North Richmond Street.
He enters Belvedere College in April 1893.
Joyce and his father visit Cork in the Summer of 1893, staying at the Victoria Hotel, and Youghal.
In December 1893, Joyce’s father’s portfolio of properties in Cork is auctioned off.
1n June 1894 Joyce and his father visit Glasgow and Edinburgh.
DRUMCONDRA
2 Holywell Villas, Millbourne Avenue (November 1894-Spring 1896)
A more agreeable dwelling, now demolished, it was located up a lane.
In the winter Joyce’s parents attend the Glencree fund-raising banquet out in Wicklow.
13 North Richmond Street (Spring 1896-late 1896)
To the confusion of researchers, Thom’s records a quite different John Joyce living at number 17 in the same street at the time. As John Stanislaus’s residence at number 13 is not cited in Thom’s, it must be that his stay there was of limited duration. It was the house of a priest who had recently died.
In November 1896, Dante dies of fatty degeneration of the heart at the Hospice for the Dying at Harold’s Cross.
FAIRVIEW
29 Windsor Avenue (late 1896-May 1899)
A small house of ‘bare boards and scrubbed planks,’ it overlooked the broad mudflats of Dublin Bay. Joyce pére paid only an initial sum to the landlord, a widow, Mrs Mary Love, who owned three adjacent properties on the street. He managed by a legal mechanism to avoid paying a penny more for two years. In Ulysses, Joyce has ‘Father’ Bob Cowley, a spoiled priest, living at this address with similar issues of rent avoidance. The widow’s son, Hugh, resurfaces ad the Reverend Hugh C. Love in “Wandering Rocks” and “Circe”.
Joyce enters University College, 27 September 1898.
DRUMCONDRA
Convent Avenue (May-Autumn 1899)
An entrance road to Saint Vincent’s lunatic asylum, run by the Sisters of Charity.
13 Richmond Avenue (Autumn 1899-May 1900)
A fifteen-room house which the Joyces shared with Richard Hughes and his family. Hughes reappears in Stephen Hero under the name of Mr Wilkinson.
In April 1900, Queen Victoria visits Dublin.
In May 1900, using the proceeds from an article on Ibsen in the Fortnightly Review, James brought his father on a trip to London with him.
LONDON
unknown (May 1900-Summer 1901)
In May 1900, using the proceeds from an article on Ibsen in the Fortnightly Review, James brought his father on a trip to London with him.
FAIRVIEW
8 Royal Terrace (May 1900-Summer 1901)
MULLINGAR
unknown (late June-August 1900)
Joyce and his father (and some others of the children, including Stannie) moved to Mullingar temporarily as John Joyce had a temporary job revising the election list. It is not known where they resided. It might have been in a house on Earl street belonging to a photographer, Philip Shaw (in Ulysses, Milly Bloom is living as a photographer’s assistant in Mullingar), or in a larger house on the outskirts of the town (as depicted in Stephen Hero). Joyce possibly completed his translation of Hauptmann’s Before Sunrise here, and he may also have begun his autobiographical novel here.
FAIRVIEW
8 Royal Terrace (Summer 1900-Autumn 1901)
PHIBSBOROUGH
32 Glengariff Parade (Autumn 1901-October 1902)
In June 1902, Joyce obtains his university degree (B.A.)
7 St. Peter’s Terrace (October 1902-December 1902)
This small dwelling accommodated John and Mary Jane Joyce, with their children James, Poppie, Stannie, Charlie, Eileen, May, Eva, Florrie, and Baby. All would have had rotted teeth. After Mrs Joyce’s death (August 13, 1903), Poppie (aged 19) attempted to maintain some semblance of order.
PARIS
Hôtel Corneille, 5 rue Corneille (3–22 December 1902)
PHIBSBOROUGH
7 St. Peter’s Terrace (October 1902-January 1903)
en route DUBLIN-LONDON-PARIS
18-23 January 1903
PARIS
Hôtel Corneille, 5 rue Corneille (23 January-12 April 1903)
PHIBSBOROUGH
7 St. Peter’s Terrace (April 1903-late March 1904)
Joyce’s mother May Joyce dies on 13 August 1903.
DUBLIN SOUTH
60 Shelbourne Road (late March-31 August 1904)
Joyce meets Nora Barnacle on Nassau Street 10 June 1904.
SANDYMOUNT
35 Strand Road (1-2 September 1904)
The home of the theosophist James H. Cousins and his wife Gretta.
unidentified (3 September 1904)
The lodgings of a medical student named O’Callaghan.
DUBLIN NORTH
103 North Strand Road (4-8 September 1904)
The home of his aunt Josephine, wife of his mother’s brother, William Murray.
SANDYCOVE
Martello Tower (9-15 September 1904)
The temporary abode of Oliver St John Gogarty and Samuel Chenevix Trench
DUBLIN NORTH
103 North Strand Road (15-19 September 1904)
PHIBSBOROUGH
7 St. Peter’s Terrace (19 September-8 October 1904)
en route DUBLIN-LONDON-PARIS-ZURICH
8–11 October 1904
ZURICH
Gasthaus Hoffnung (11-19 October 1904)
TRIESTE
c/o Berlitz School, via S. Nicolà (20-30 October 1904)
POLA
Via Giulia 2II (30 October-31 December 1904)
Via Medolina 7 (1 January-March 1905)
TRIESTE
Piazza Ponteroso 3III (12 March-1 May 1905)
Via S. Nicolò 30II (1 May 1905-24 February 1906)
Via Giovanni Boccaccio 1II (24 February-30 July 1906)
en route TRIESTE-FIUME-ANCONA-ROME
30-31 July 1906
ROME
Via Frattina 52II (31 July-3 December 1906)
Via Monte Brianzo 51IV (8 December 1906-7 March 1907)
TRIESTE
Via S. Nicolò 32III (7 March-November 1907)
In July-August Joyce in Municipal Hospital, Trieste
Via Caterina 1I (1 December 1907-April 1909)
Via Vincenzo Scussa 8I (25 April 1909-25 July 1909)
en route TRIESTE-DUBLIN
25-29 July 1909
Joyce returns to Dublin with his son Giorgio, leaving Nora and Stanislaus in Trieste.
PHIBSBOROUGH
44 Fontenoy Street (July-August 1909)
Joyce and his son stay at the latest, quite small, Joyce family residence.
GALWAY
Dominick Street (August 1909)
The home of Nora’s uncle Michael Healy.
Joyce spent some time chatting to Nora’s mother and listening to her sing old ballads at her home at 4 Bowling Green.
PHIBSBOROUGH
44 Fontenoy Street (August-9 September 1909)
en route DUBLIN-TRIESTE
9-13 September 1909
TRIESTE
Via Vincenzo Scussa 8I (13 September-18 October 1909)
en route TRIESTE-DUBLIN
18-21 October 1909
PHIBSBOROUGH
44 Fontenoy Street (21 October 1909-2 January 1910)
Joyce was in Dublin to on business (the Volta Cinema enterprise). He visited Belfast on 27 November and Cork on 12 December. The cinema opened its doors on 20 December.
en route DUBLIN-MILAN-TRIESTE
2-6 January 1910
Joyce was accompanied by his sisten Eileen.
TRIESTE
Via Vincenzo Scussa 8I (6 January-December 1910)
Via della Barriera Vecchua 32III (December 1910-1 September 1912)
en route TRIESTE-LONDON-DUBLIN-GALWAY
12-15 July 1912
Nora Joyce and Lucia travelled first, arriving on 8 July, followed by James Joyce and Giorgio on 15 July. In London, Joyce visited the offices of Maunsel and Company. He then spent two days in Dublin having discussions with his publishers before joining Nora and Lucia in Galway on 17 July.
GALWAY
4 Bowling Green (17 July-17 August 1912)
The young family visited the Aran Islands, the locale of Synge’s plays, and Oughterard, in the graveyard of which Joyce places the grave of Michael Furey in “The Dead”.
DUBLIN
13, then 17, then 21 Richmond Place, North Circular Road. (17-22 August 1912)
These were rented rooms and Joyce was alone. He was beset on multiple fronts. Getting Dubliners published in Dublin was proving impossible.
DUBLIN NORTH
103 North Strand Road (22 August-11 September 1912)
When rejoined by Nora and the children, they stayed at Aunt Josephine’s house.
The printed sheets of Dubliners were allegedly (though not actually—they never existed) guillotined on 10 September 1912.
en route DUBLIN-LONDON-FLUSHING-MUNICH-TRIESTE
11-15 September 1912
TRIESTE
Via Donato Bramante 4II (15 September 1912-*28 June 1915)
en route TRIESTE-ZURICH
*28/30 June 1915