“Our civilisation is an immense woven fabric in which very different elements are mixed ... it is pointless searching for a fabric that has remained pure, virgin and uninfluenced by other threads nearby ... What race or language ... can nowadays claim to be pure? No race has less right to make such a boast than the one presently inhabiting Ireland.”

James Joyce made these remarks in a lecture entitled Ireland: Island of Saints and Sages in 1907. They were quoted last week by John McCourt, author of a book on Joyce’s time in Trieste, to argue that recombinations, not zero-sum purity, characterise Ireland’s place in European culture, literature and languages. Ireland understands Europe from within and we are Irish through Europe. Each is a bridge to the other; they are not isolated piers – defined by Stephen Dedalus as disappointed bridges in Ulysses.

McCourt spoke at a conference in Trinity College Dublin to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the university’s chairs in French, German, Italian and Spanish. The papers are based on chapters in a forthcoming book examining the impact of languages across Irish intellectual, economic and political life, looked at from a wide variety of academic disciplines. It is a rich and multifaceted approach, delivering many insights on the creative role of languages in contemporary Ireland.

Joyce’s lecture was an exuberant celebration of Irishness as a pluralist identity........

© The Irish Times