Taoiseach identifies with Joyce's talent for constructing Dublin

Two prominent Dubliners last night modestly declined to claim any expertise in the work of the city's most famous writer.

The Taoiseach and the Lord Mayor were among the attendance at the official opening of the restored No 15 Usher's Island, the setting for James Joyce's short story, The Dead.

Standing in the hallway where Lily the maid complained in 1904 of how "the men that is today is only all palaver and what they can get out of you", the Lord Mayor, Mr Royston Brady, conceded he and Joyce were not on first name terms. No, he hadn't read The Dead, or even seen the film. His background was "in tourism", he said: "So I welcome this as yet another attraction added to the list."

It was left to the Taoiseach to fly the cultural flag for Fianna Fáil. He did so by skilfully drawing on the common thread that connects his party with Ulysses. Joyce wrote the latter in such a way that, if it was necessary, Dublin could be rebuilt from its pages. And of course Fianna Fáil's support for the construction industry is also well known.

So there could be no doubting Mr Ahern's sincerity when he paid tribute to owner Brendan Kilty - a lawyer rather than builder - who has transformed 15 Usher's Island from the derelict site of four years ago.

By way of an aside, the Taoiseach confessed that the knowledge foreign leaders had of Joyce would sometimes "humiliate you".

A little ruefully, he recalled the recent visit of the Chinese premier. "Someone made the mistake of mentioning the Joyce centenary, and 25 minutes later we were still listening to him," he said.

"Unfortunately, there had to be a translator, so 50 minutes later we were still listening to him."