Conor Fennell

After a career in journalism I have renewed my interest in the Irish writer James Joyce. I have published a book about his time in Paris:A Little Circle of Kindred Minds: Joyce in Paris.

I am one of several volunteers who keep open the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove south of Dublin. This is where Joyce stayed before leaving Ireland in 1904 - an exile for life.

In April 2015 a group of volunteers went on a Joycean pilgrimage to Paris, visiting places associated with Joyce such as the location of Sylvia Beach's bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, at 12 rue de l'Odeon (now a boutique). We even went out of Paris past Versailles to have lunch at Hotel Leopold in Les Vaux-de-Cernay. This is where Joyce, Beckett and 30 other writers celebrated the French translation of Joyce's Ulysses in what amounted to one of the biggest piss-ups in literary history.

Our next pilgrimage was to Trieste in spring 2016. It was followed by tours to Joyce-related sites at Zurich and Rome.