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The Bishop and 'that' book

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Michael Browne was Bishop of Galway for almost 40 years. Physically, he was a big man, quite imperious in his manner. As children growing up, we were fearful of him. He was intimidating, his Episcopal signature was a cross followed by his name, so to many he was known as “Cross Michael”. He was deeply conservative, he insisted on segregated bathing in Salthill (A family Resort), ‘Men Only’ in Blackrock whereas the beach a couple of hundred yards away was known as “The Ladies”. Ne’er the twain could meet when he was around.


He was one of the leaders of the protests against Dr. Noel Browne’s ‘Mother and Child’ scheme and supported the boycott of Protestant businesses in Wexford in the 1950’s. When Dr. Robert Corbett, the Master of the Coombe Maternity Hospital who was a Catholic, was appointed as Professor of Gynaecology in UCG, the Bishop objected because the doctor was educated in TCD, which to Browne was ‘a centre for atheist and communist propaganda’. The doctor had to emigrate.

When the Censorship Board was at its busiest, the Bishop was one of its greatest advocates. We often had people who acted as ‘vigilantes for the Church’ checking out our stock to make sure we had no titles that were ‘on the index’. We kept these under the counter. They were particularly hot on salacious and filthy foreign books and magazines, the words “Occasion of Sin” were heard often.

So it was a surprise some years ago, when we bought an elderly local priest’s library, to discover a two volume paperback set of Ulysses by James Joyce which was published by the Odyssey Press. This was the ultimate ‘dirty book’; 500 copies of the 2nd printing were burned by New York Post Office; 499 copies of the 500 numbered copies of the 3rd printing were seized by Customs Authorities in Folkestone, and yet here it was in a Galway Parish Priest’s Library. We got an even bigger shock when we opened the flyleaf and discovered the signature “+ M. Browne 1938”. Cross Michael himself, the Bishop!

We wrote to Ken Monaghan, a nephew of James Joyce and one of the great interpreters of his work, to tell him of this find, and by return, had the following reply ---

“Dear Tom,

My heart hath filled with great joy at your wondrous news. To think that our dear brother in Christ was, all those years, a closet Joycean. I can just picture him now bent over his treasured tome furrowing his hallowed brow, chuckling his chuckles and exposing his immortal soul to eternal damnation by reading this awful book. All done, of course, in the interest of discovering how dangerous it would be to have it freely available to his beloved people. I like it.

I also find it a nice little coincidence that in the year 1938, he also administered a firm skelp to my cheek as he confirmed me in Oughterard. I was, in fact, the first child in the village to have this honour which features prominently in my c.v.

Thank you for brightening my otherwise dull November day. Please give my kind regards to your mother and to the rest of the distinguished Kenny family.

Best wishes, Ken."

Buy 'Ulysses' now >>>

Ulysses (+ M Browne) 700

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