John Stanislaus Joyce (4 July 1849 – 29 December 1931) was the father of writer

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

, and a well known

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

man about town. The son of James and Ellen (''née'' O'Connell) Joyce, John Joyce grew up in Cork, where his mother's family, which claimed kinship to "Liberator"

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, was quite prominent. Joyce attended St Colman's College,

Fermoy Fermoy () is a town on the River Blackwater in east County Cork, Ireland. As of the 2016 census, the town and environs had a population of approximately 6,500 people. It is located in the barony of Condons and Clangibbon, and is in the Dá ...

, from 1859 and later studied medicine at The Queen's College, Cork, from 1867. However, he did not complete his university studies. Following his father's death in 1866, Joyce inherited substantial property around Cork. Soon after he moved to Dublin, where he worked for several years as secretary at a distillery company. He was noted as a fine tenor singer, although he never pursued a musical career. On 5 May 1880, Joyce married Mary "May" Murray. That year, as a reward for his work supporting

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidates in the General Election of

1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February � ...

, Joyce was given a post in the Dublin Custom House. In 1882, his son James was born, the first of ten surviving children. From eldest to youngest, names and ages given according to the 1901 census: James Augustine (aged 19 in 1901), Margaret Alice (17), John Stanislaus (16), Chales icPatrick (14), George Alfred (13), Eileen (12), May Kathleen (11), Eva May (10), Florence (9) and Mabel (8). Over the next ten years, Joyce gradually ran through his property. A supporter of the nationalist politician

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...

, Joyce was crushed by what he saw as Parnell's betrayal and death following the revelation of his adultery with Kitty O'Shea. He remained a committed Parnellite and benefited from the patronage of political colleagues in later life when he had few other sources of income.Fintan Lane, ‘The Parnellite connection: Daniel John Hishon and the Joyces’, James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 1 (1999), pp 225–8. By the time of Parnell's death in 1891, Joyce had spent most of his inheritance and had been pensioned from his post at the custom house. A spendthrift, he proved barely able to live on the small pension that was left to him, and spent much of his time drinking. His wife died in 1903, but despite his poor management of the household, he managed to outlive her by 28 years. He died at the age of 82. Of all his children, Joyce got along well only with his eldest, James, who enjoyed his father's company and shared in some of his traits, including his musical talent and his inability with money. John Joyce inspired several characters in his son's works, such as Simon Dedalus in ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional al ...

'' and '' Ulysses'', Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker in ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

'', and the narrator's uncle in the stories "The Sisters" and "Araby" in ''

Dubliners ''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were writ ...

''.

References

External links

1901 census showing Joyce living (with his family including James) in Royal Terrace, Clontarf, Dublin

1911 census showing Joyce living as a boarder, accompanied by his two youngest daughters Florence and Mabel Anna at 20 Gardiner's Place, Dublin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joyce, John 1849 births 1931 deaths People educated at St Colman's College, Fermoy