James Joyce Tower & Museum Schools’ Programme
In 2015, the Friends of Joyce Tower Society, who staff the James Joyce Tower & Museum introduced special tours aimed at transition year school pupils. The response from teachers and pupils was terrific. All were hugely interested in the history of our Martello Tower and with the stories of its association with the writer, James Joyce.
The tower, itself, houses the James Joyce Museum which contains many artefacts and memorabilia associated with the famous writer. It is an excellent place for students to explore and learn about the Martello defences erected around the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland to protect against Napoleon and to learn about this particular tower’s international renown as the setting for James Joyce’s masterpiece, ‘Ulysses’.
The school tours are conducted by friendly volunteers who are more than happy to guide young pupils around the tower and hopefully awaken, in them, an interest in the history and literary stories that make this such a unique and magical place.
Tours can be booked Thursday/Friday between 10 am and 4 pm and the tour itself takes about forty five minutes. The pupils will want to spend some time inspecting the exhibits and so an hour to an hour and a half should be allocated for a visit to facilitate a full enjoyment of the experience. A maximum group size of 15 is suggested.
At the end of the tour, a copy of our Quiz book is presented to each pupil so that pupils (and teachers!) can test their knowledge. The questions are generally quite easy but there are one or two tricky ones to challenge the more interested pupils!
If you are interested in booking a tour and including a visit to the James Joyce Tower & Museum in your school’s transition year programme, please contact us.
