Annual celebration of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses will see dream of ‘citizen’ character played out for real

The cantankerous xenophobe referred to as the “citizen” in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses seems poised to finally get his wish after more than a century.

In Joyce’s literary masterpiece, set in Dublin on 16 June 1904, the character rails against foreigners, Jews and the “thicklugged” English and yearns for an Irish battleship to fly the flag of the province of Munster, which shows three crowns on a blue field.