Plan I. Introduction 3 II. Main part 6

Visits to Dublin[]

Dublin in 1909
In July 1909, Joyce received a year's advance payment from one of his students and returned to Ireland to introduce Georgio to both sides of the family (his own in Dublin and Nora's in Galway).^[188] He unsuccessfully applied for the position of Chair of Italian at his alma mater, which had become University College Dublin.^[189] He met with Roberts, who seemed positive about publishing the Dubliners.^[190] He returned to Trieste in September with his sister Eva, who helped Nora run the home.^[191] Joyce only stayed in Trieste for a month, as he almost immediately came upon the idea of starting a cinema in Dublin, which unlike Trieste had none. He quickly got the backing of some Triestine business men and returned to Dublin in October, launching Ireland's first cinema, the Volta Cinematograph.^[192] It was initially well-received, but fell apart after Joyce left.^[193] He returned to Trieste in January 1910 with another sister, Eileen.^[194][aa]
From 1910 to 1912, Joyce still lacked a reliable income. This brought his conflicts with Stanislaus, who was frustrated with lending him money, to their peak.^[198] In 1912, Joyce once more lectured at the Università Popolare on various topics in English literature and applied for a teaching diploma in English at the University of Padua.^[199] He performed very well on the qualification tests, but was denied because Italy did not recognise his Irish degree. In 1912, Joyce and his family returned to Dublin briefly in the summer.^[200] While there, his three-year-long struggle with Roberts over the publication of Dubliners^[201] came to an end as Roberts refused to publish the book due to concerns of libel. Roberts had the printed sheets destroyed, though Joyce was able to obtain a copy of the proof sheets.^[ab] When Joyce returned to Trieste, he wrote an invective against Roberts, "Gas from a Burner".^[203] He never went to Dublin again.^[204]