James Joyce’s celebration of St Patrick’s Day shows that he cared about Ireland after all

‘There’s plenty of vins on the menu, which is no surprise. It is a surprise to see him celebrating St Patrick’s Day’

JAMES JOYCE branded his homeland an overly religious “old sow” and deliberately lived in exile, but fresh evidence of a raucous night out may paint a new portrait of the artist as an Irishman.

A 90-year-old restaurant menu has revealed that Joyce celebrated St Patrick’s Day despite his conflicted relationship with Ireland, suggesting the writer may have had more patriotic affection for his mother country than previously thought. The wine-heavy menu, dated “St Patrick’s Day 1931”, comes from a restaurant in Paris, where Joyce lived for 20 years. Newly unearthed by British experts, the menu was signed by the author and his guests at what appears to have been a celebratory dinner that evening.

Playwright and fellow Irish exile Samuel Beckett joined in the celebrations with his literary friend before pocketing the autographed menu, which was suitably replete with wine options for St Patrick’s Day revelry – and Joyce’s famous taste for alcohol.

The relic from the modernist author’s daily life found its way into an archive of material amassed by his grandson Stephen, who kept secret the contents of the collection until his death in 2020 when he left it to the University of Reading – where The Sunday Telegraph has been given a look at its treasures.

“It seems like he was out celebrating St Patrick’s Day,” said Guy Baxter, an archivist at the University of Reading.

“There he is with Beckett, his family, his friends. There’s plenty of ‘vins’ on the menu, which is no surprise.

“But it is a surprise to see him celebrating St Patrick’s Day, when you think of his views, his life in Europe, and even his tone in some of the letters that we have when it comes to Ireland.”

Dublin-born Joyce never returned to Ireland after 1912.

While there is no surviving bill for the meal, the signed menu bears the name of Silvia Beach, a bookshop owner who published Joyce’s groundbreaking novel Ulysses at her own expense.

His loyal patron’s presence at the dinner suggests the often penniless author may have dined for free. The venue was the Restaurant Les Trianons on Paris’s Left Bank, where duck, turbot and even alcohol-filled souffles were served to at least 11 guests, including Joyce’s wife Nora – possibly singing the menu with a joke name – and daughter Lucia.

Steven Matthews, English literature professor at the University of Reading, said: “When examining great literary figures like Joyce, we often do so in quite detached ways, speaking in abstractions. But this really brings us closer to the man, and gives us a sense of intimacy, and an insight into the everyday.”