Sir, – The James Joyce commemorative coin was minted in Germany – does this mean it was forged in the Schmidty of the soul? – Yours, etc,
GERARD LEE,
St Agnes Park,
Crumlin,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – You report that Joyce’s grandson described the error on the €10 coin as “one of the greatest insults to the Joyce family that has ever been perpetrated in Ireland”. Are you sure he didn’t say it was “one of the greatest insults to the Joyce family to have ever been perpetrated in Ireland”? – Yours, etc,
OLIVER MURPHY,
Killarney Road,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I fully agree with Robert Joyce's comments (Home News, April 13th) concerning Stephen Joyce's reaction to the new James Joyce €10 coin. It is an overreaction. The error on the coin is embarrassing. But the Irish Central Bank's PR stunt to try to explain it away – now that is Joycean! First it said that it was an error, then it said that the text was not intended as a literal representation – which means that it wasn't an error! There are many misrepresentations of fact in Ulysses , none more obvious than in Mr Deasy's historical observations to Stephen Dedalus in Episode Two, and scholars have been debating the question for decades – were all of these errors inserted into the text deliberately by Joyce or was he himself mistaken?
Whatever about the error itself, Joyce will be laughing all the way along Sandymount Strand as he reads the Central Bank’s statement. I don’t think he could have put it any better himself! – Yours, etc,
ROBERT GOGAN, Editor,
Ulysses by James Joyce
Remastered by Robert
Gogan , Killucan,
Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
Sir, – Thank you for interpreting the oblique messages contained in the "deliberate" error made by the Central Bank on the Joyce memorial coin (Editorial, April 13th). Perhaps you might also help me work out the significance of the inappropriate "that" in the same editorial. As in the case of the Central Bank, I'm certain that The Irish Times would not inadvertently fall into error on such an important matter. The restless search for "why" goes on. – Yours, etc,
JOE AHERN,
Hermitage Close,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Congratulations to those who took on the task of improving Joyce’s grammar.
Is it not time someone took on those patronising, pretentious Joyceans? – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY LEAVY,
Shielmartin Drive,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – The Joyce commemorative coin debacle illustrates a number of points: the apotheosis of James Joyce (unread but revered, or perhaps revered because unread); the apparent inability of products of the Irish education system to transcribe even the shortest text without error; the unintelligibility of the quoted passage with or without the extra “that”; and the breathtaking brazenness of the bank’s excuse that “the coin is an artistic representation of the author and text and not intended as a literal representation” which calls to mind WS Gilbert’s Pooh-Bah who, when caught in a barefaced lie, waved it away as “merely corroborative detail, intended to lend artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative”. – Yours, etc,
GERARD CASEY,
School of Philosophy,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4.