ed invasions by Vickings and Normans in medieval times and was conquered by the British, beginning in the Elizabethan period. Sucessive invasions and settlement estabilished an"Anglo-Irish" aristocracy who controled much of the land. During the eighteenth century the penal laws effectively barred Catholics from social advancement. Even the Irish language spoken by Joyce's ancestors was prohibited. The 'eternal' differences between Catholics and Protestants were the scene that Joyce lived during his youth.
             After Clongowes he studied in Dublin at Kildare and Belvedere College. He went to Dublin University College where he graduated in Modern Languages in 1902. His mother's dream was to see him as a priest but during the time he was at the University he broke with the church rejecting Catholicism. At that time he had made contacts with the "Irish Literary Renaissance" a movemet which was responsible for a period of immense literary productivy between 1890 and 1920, liked with nationalist aspirations. Joyce started to write his firsts manuscripts.
             Joyce's University experience was also crucial in forming his character and public image besides the conservative and intelectually curriculum. Modern thought and Modern art were condemed or ignored by the College, controled by Jesuits. Joyce was a enthusiastic about the playwright Ibsen but this fact gave him a notoriety as a dangerously radical thinker. If the instructors were relatively backward, the students at University College were sensitive to the political and social turmoil of the time.
             Against his mother's desire he left Dublin, after College (1902) self-imposig an exile in Paris, disgusted by narrowness of Ireland provincialism. He worked as a journalist, a teacher and in other occupation always in difficult finacial conditions. He spent a year in France, returning when a telegram arrived saying his mother was dying. He left Dub...