In Portrait of the Artist of course Joyce speaks of an epiphany, as a moment of spiritual or aesthetic revelation. And this sense that reality is in fact the sum of other parallel realities is surely the whole moving spirit behind Ulysses.

So the choice of date is probably significant.

Joyce paid Ireland the ultimate compliment by dedicating his life to writing of it as some sort of portal to all realities. However there always seems to me a lot that is uncomplimentary about Ireland in his writing, and it always amazes me the Irish have taken him so much to their hearts.

Some of his stuff makes Angela's Ashes look like the product of the Irish tourist board. A few of the Irish nationalists, not all of the from Ireland, that we encounter on Mudcat - surely the spiritual ancestors of Cyclops - I don't think they would like Joyce if they actually read him.