A pint of Joyce and a packet of Doyle, please

Friday's New York Times returns for a 2nd bite at the cherry on the Joyce-Doyle imbroglio. As we posted about last week, the NYT had rather gullibly picked up a story from the British media in which some lighthearted and out-of-context remarks by Roddy Doyle were taken as a slam of James Joyce, creating the literary frisson equivalent of going to Kilburn to watch Irish construction workers throw each other out the windows of the local pubs. Today's article by John Rockwell (not to be confused with Felicity Shagwell) sets the record straight, noting Colum McCann's Irish Times account of what Doyle really said. The article then expands into a more general rumination about the literary theme park industry, in which Ireland clearly has a huge comparative advantage. We're not sure what the final message of the article is, although Mr Rockwell is clearly a big fan of Roddy Doyle. With whom he seems to share some legitimate scepticism about how Dublin is planning to mark the Bloomsday centenary:

For the anniversary, 10,000 people are expected on O'Connell Street for a meal of fried offal and mutton kidneys, all washed down with Guinness. "They'll be serving Joyce Happy Meals next," Mr. Doyle joked at N.Y.U. "ReJoyce 2004," as the centenary festival calls itself, also promises a music-and-light spectacular along the River Liffey.

Now that Dublin has its own Left Bank, the Temple Bar, the Bloomsday throng can continue the drinking there amidst the English stag parties and contemplate that if Dublin had been this sophisticated and cosmopolitan 100 years ago, the likes of Joyce and Beckett wouldn't have had to leave at all. And of course, that Guinness that everyone will be downing is now brewed by the fine multinational corporation Diageo. If this festival gets much more Oirish, they'll be changing the name of O'Connell street back to Sackville Street any day now.