"B.V.H.; B.L.G.; P.P.M.; T.D.S.; V.B.D.; T.C.H.; L.O.N." The group gathered around the table gazed at one another blankly; then their eyes fell again on page 131, lines 3-4, of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. No particular notion as to what this collection of initials might mean was immediately forthcoming. Consultation of Roland McHugh's Annotations to Finnegans Wake, the indispensable aid to reading the work, on this occasion was not rewarding. Nor were any other immediately available sources.
It seemed possible from the scanty help given by the context that the letters might refer to qualifications of the book's hero, HCE, on the lines of Ph.D., B.Sc., etc. A few tentative guesses were made in this direction, but not very productively. The group was about to move on something more rewarding, leaving another unresolved Finnegans Wake problem behind it, when someone suggested that TDS could stand for T.D. Sullivan, author of God Save Ireland. Another mentioned that P.P.M. could be Joyce's relation Peter Paul McSwiney, 19th-century Dublin merchant and politician. Someone else suggested that V.B.D. could refer to Valentine Blake Dillon, already mentioned in Ulysses.
Lord Mayors
This seemed a more promising line of inquiry, but were these all the initials of individuals, and if so, what connected them? A week's research was needed to produce the answer: these were the initials of seven Lord Mayors of Dublin, in chronological order: Bartholomew Van Homrigh (Lord Mayor 1697-98); Benjamin Lee Guinness (1851); Peter Paul McSwiney (1864, 1875); T.D Sullivan (1886-87); Valentine Blake Dillon (1894-95); T.C. Harrington (1901-04) and Laurence O'Neill (1917-23). Nor is the selection arbitrary: Guinness, for instance, has to get in because the book is obsessed with the brewery, while Harrington is the Lord Mayor who gave Joyce his character reference on his first venture to the Continent.
Such are the rewards of participation in the Finnegans Wake study group of the James Joyce Institute of Ireland. It would be misleading to pretend that such moments are frequent, but even in their absence more than enough is learned and enjoyed to make the experience worthwhile. Nor is it just a crossword puzzle: the humour and humanity of Joyce's work are also fully appreciated.
The Institute - a somewhat grandiose name for a determinedly modest group - has been in existence for more than 20 years and has devoted itself consistently over that period to the study of Joyce's work - a study that is by no means exhausted. It was founded to provide a means for people who were not academically engaged in Joyce studies to apply themselves to his work. Some might argue that Joyce receives quite enough attention already, but that attention is almost entirely academic: it is in fact very important that in his native city there should be a chance for citizens, in a forum remote from questions of external rewards and sanctions, actually to study this extraordinary oeuvre and to share their thoughts on it.
Larger story
It is perhaps particularly important at the present time, when Joyce's work is seen more and more as part of a larger story - the story of the discovery of Irishness, the nature of Irish identity, what it has to tell us about our post-colonial condition, etc., etc. All of these issues have their place, but it matters also to know Joyce's work fairly well, a knowledge which at least serves as a counter-balance to many of the hastier assumptions made about it. And it is to this purpose - to know Joyce's work fairly well, without strings attached - that the Institute is dedicated.
For many years its meetings were held in the highly appropriate setting of Newman House, St Stephen's Green, Joyce's old alma mater. It was here that its founders - the late John Garvin, the late Niall Montgomery, Gerry O'Flaherty, J.C.C. Mays, among others - would come to dispense Joycean wisdom to receptive members. Many foreign scholars used to envy the Joycean continuity that the institute's location gave it.
Although its sessions were principally devoted to the study of Finnegans Wake, as the Joycean text most obviously in need of study, the other works were not neglected, and a number of lectures by both visiting speakers and members helped to keep the flame alive. A high point was the centenary of Joyce's birth in 1982, marked by a sequence of celebrations and a series of lectures by distinguished visiting speakers. A rough chronology since 1984 consists of five years devoted to Finnegans Wake (1984-89); six to Ulysses (1989-95); and, after a brief breather, another go at the Wake.
It is not all study and lectures: what might be called "field trips" to appropriate Joycean locations are regularly undertaken. A highlight was a journey to Paris, where several of the writer's old haunts were visited.
Newman House
Some years ago the institute was obliged to leave Newman House when, ironically enough, the building was turned into a "heritage property". Thus a tenuous but definite link with UCD was regrettably snapped. A new home was found through the generosity of the James Joyce Centre in North Great George's Street, an organisation whose aims and purposes are in many ways continuous with those of the institute itself.
Here, under the chairmanship of Tony Armstrong and with a current active membership of about 20, it has continued to prosper and is currently engaged each Tuesday night in the study of Chapter 8 - the Anna Livia chapter - of Finnegans Wake. For anyone who falls under the spell of that work, the sessions are at the least helpful, at best very enlightening. There is absolutely no qualification required for participation, other than a genuine interest in Joyce's work.
In its present home in the Joyce Centre, the future of the James Joyce Institute of Ireland should be good for another 20 years, at least. And while it may never have reached the dimensions implied in its title, it is much more important that it has persisted as an open and hospitable forum for the reception and interpretation of Joyce's writing. Its longevity is a tribute to the work that can inspire such engagement.