James Joyce's last cane

“Is there any reason why your Ashplant shall not be made the centre of the collection in the ‘National Joyce Museum, Cabra’?” (letter from Oliver Gogarty to James Joyce, 1908).

This is James Joyce’s last cane which was donated by his friend Maria Jolas at the opening of the museum in 1962. Joyce’s walking stick appears as Stephen’s Ashplant in Ulysses. Ash being significant as it was sacred in Irish tradition and was used to make the hurls of the Fianna. In Proteus, Stephen’s ashplant becomes his “augur’s rod” and in Circe, it transforms into “Nothung”, the magical sword from Norse mythology featured in Wagner’s Ring cycle.