The National Library has acquired 500 sheets of James Joyce's manuscripts, including notebooks from his early days in Dublin and drafts of the final chapter of 'Ulysses'.
The €12.2m purchase has been described by a spokesman for Minister Síle de Valera as the largest acquisition ever by a national cultural institution.
Shortly after noon, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, welcomed Minister de Valera to Dublin airport with her unique cargo of Joycean scripts which she brought here from an RAF base in London.
Yesterday, the Director of the National Library, Brendan O'Donoghue, purchased the material from Alexis Leon, the son of the late Paul Leon – Joyce's Paris-based friend, agent, secretary and legal advisor during the 1930's.
In September 1940, Leon Sr, who was a Jew, returned from free France to German-occupied Paris, which Joyce and his circle had fled, and immediately set about salvaging Joyce's books and papers which the writer's landlord had put up for auction to recover unpaid rent.
Soon afterwards, Leon was arrested by the Gestapo and died in a concentration camp. In 1941, Joyce died in Zurich and after the War all the rescued papers were returned to his widow, Nora.
The National Library has purchased early notebooks from Joyce's days in Dublin at the turn of the 20th century before he wrote 'Dubliners'; notes and drafts of chapters of 'Ulysses' which have not been seen before now; and proofs and amended proofs of parts of 'Finnegan's Wake'.
They are thought to be enough to justify ranking the National Library as one of the premier repositories of Joyce material anywhere in the world.
Allied Irish Banks donated €6.8 million towards the purchase which will be considered as payment in lieu of tax. The remaining €5.4 million came from the heritage fund recently established by Minister de Valera to facilitate the purchase of significant artefacts by national institutions.
