Dublin Wants James Joyce's Body Back, Probably Not Going to Get It.

A motion to repatriate the remains of Irish-born writer James Joyce to Dublin has been proposed by city counselors, the Guardian reported. The motion, which was announced earlier this month, comes in advance of the 2022 centenary of Joyce’s most famous novel, Ulysses.

However, as Irish writer Mark O’Connell recently opined, the proposed relocation is not only ill-advised, but also highly unlikely to actually happen. While much of Joyce’s work features Dublin prominently, the writer himself had a complicated relationship with his country of birth, spending decades living away from Ireland due in large part to a growing feeling of animosity toward the nation and its oppressive culture. Joyce died and was buried in Zurich in 1941, and there were famously no official representatives of the Irish state at his burial.

In the years since his death, Dublin has had a change of heart when it comes to the city’s most famous literary figure, shamelessly capitalizing on Joyce’s value as a tourist attraction. Now the city wants his body back too, but, as O’Connell pointed out, it’s unlikely Switzerland will be particularly willing to give up their own piece of the Joyce tourism cash cow.

“I think there would certainly be some resistance because, after all, Joyce is one of the major tourist attractions that people come to see,” said Fritz Senn, director of the Zurich James Joyce Foundation. “Many people go to his grave so there would be an issue.”

In order to carry out the repatriation plan, Dublin city council would first have to pass the resolution, then convince the Irish government to seek the repatriation of Joyce’s body, and the Irish government would then have to convince Switzerland to hand over the bones. All of this, O’Connell argues, is not only highly improbable, but would result, at best, in turning Joyce’s body into yet another tourist attraction in a country from which the author felt exiled throughout much of his life.

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