WLD:

"I'm not calling or abusing you."

Okay - I tend to be a little touchy about my dunderheadedness ...

"He was a complex and clever man"

Very much so.

"and his attitudes are not to be encapsulated in simplistic statements so I won't try."

Okay.

"You must read yourself and form your own opinions."

Have done so. Always open to new input, though.

"If I gave you an opinion - it would only be an opinion, and I love and admire his work, but I am in no way an expert."

Nor I.

"He deserves better people than me to expound on him."

Hmmm ... it's your language too!

"I don't think he was very comfortable with strident anti-Englishness or Irish nationalism as such."

Yes, that's fairly clear in his writing.

"Joyce was very comfortable with drinking."

That's putting mildly, is it not? I'm not sure it's right, though, to equate Stephen D. with Joyce, even though he certainly seems to be based on Joyce.

"He was musing on the etymology of the words and how some of them had different roots.
'ale' I think he saw as English."

Yes - I was just trying to pursue the logic you had been using in relation to the previous couple of sentences. As I saw it.

"I think it had more to do with his sensual approach to language than marking out his turf."

That strikes me as an astute observation - who said he "deserves better people" than you, etc.?

"... we can't really [say] 'his Irish tongue' was at a disadvantage."

Agreed - but I was only giving my rough interpretation of what Stephen Daedalus was saying. I have not said anything about what the mature Joyce may or may not have thought about his own relationship with the English language, nor about what I may feel was Joyce's relationship with the English language.

Thanks for the anecdotes, etc. Enjoy reading them; many years since I read the Ellman bio., and I see I've forgotten a bit.