The Order of Business is No. 1, motion regarding the 15th report of the Seanad Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight, to be taken on conclusion of the Order of Business without debate; No. 2, Air Navigation and Transport Bill 2021 - Committee Stage (Resumed), to be taken at 1 p.m. and to be adjourned at 2.30 p.m. if not previously concluded; No. 92, motion 3, motion regarding search and rescue services, to be taken at 2.45 p.m. and, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, to conclude at 3.45 p.m., if not previously concluded, with the combined opening contributions of the proposer and seconder not to exceed 16 minutes, the contribution of all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, the contribution of a Minister or Minister of State not to exceed ten minutes and the proposer to be given no less than four minutes to reply to the debate; and No. 92, motion 4, motion regarding the passport service, to be taken at 4.30 p.m. with the time allocated not to exceed two hours.

I am going to break with precedent. Normally I would call on all the leaders of the groups to follow on from the Leader's announcement of the Order of Business. However, I now call the father of the House, Senator Norris, because I know today is a very important day not only for him personally but for all Joycean scholars, of whom he is the greatest by any measure.

I would not claim to be the greatest Joyce scholar. I would award that to my great friend Fritz Senn in Zürich who is 90 years old and still keeping his students happy. It is a very important and happy day. As Samuel Beckett might have replied, it is a happy day because it is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses. In the early 1920s James Joyce was in Sylvia Beach's bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, bemoaning the fact that he could not find a publisher for Ulysses. I remember Sylvia Beach very well. She was a tiny bird-like little American woman, but a woman of great fortitude and steel. She offered to publish it and Joyce took up her offer. So it was that 100 years ago today Ulysses was published.

What a remarkable book. Virginia Woolf had outlined the design for stream of consciousness in, I think, The Common Reader. However, she never did it herself. She wrote the prescription; Joyce fulfilled the medicine. He was very superstitious and so it was published on his birthday, 2 February 1922. Sylvia Beach went to the railway station and collected the first two copies, one for the window of her shop and one for James Joyce. When Joyce opened it, he discovered that the printer in Dijon, Darantière, had decided to correct Joyce's manuscript. For example, there was a list of characters, famous Irish characters ranging over the centuries, including Michael Angelo Hayes. Darantière thought "Michelangelo?" and so put "Michelangelo, Hayes", not realising that Michael Angelo Hayes was a real person known to Joyce and had founded the Dublin Photographic Society. That partly explains the 5,000 errors that were claimed to be in Ulysses. Whatever about the errors, it is a wonderful life-enhancing book and we should give thanks to James Joyce for having written it and having given us so much pleasure.

I thank Senator Norris, for marking the 100th anniversary of James Joyce's Ulysses, a great work of humanity and imagination, which many view as one of the greatest works of art of the 20th century. The Senator might agree with that.

I forgot to say 100 years like the Senate.

It was a good year.

Yes, and during the 100 years since this House was established, Senators have often championed minority causes and fewer people have been a greater champion of minority causes than Senator Norris. We thank him for all that work and all his work in bringing to a wider audience the work of James Joyce. We take great pride in him and the work he has championed including that great work of art, which is one of the greatest artistic achievements of any Irish person.

I now revert to the normal Order of Business and call on the acting leader of the Fianna Fáil group this morning, Senator O'Loughlin.

Senator Norris is very humble when he says that he is not the world's greatest Joycean scholar. No matter what, he is our Joycean scholar and we are all incredibly proud of him both for his work on Joyce and literature and for the work he has been doing in the Seanad. In addition to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Joyce's Ulysses, it is also important to note that he was 40 on the day it was published so today would have been his 140th birthday. There is no doubt that the world of literature was changed forever. It is terrific to see how our culture and our literature are yet again being celebrated around the world.

In particular, I wish to mention Susan Leybourne who at this moment is in the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris having published an e-book. In celebrating the 100th birthday of Ulysses, she has organised a birthday cake to come from Trieste and has organised school competitions in Italy, France and Ireland. How we hand on our literature and our understanding of literature are important. I thank the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, for her help and support on that. Long may we live to read the works of Joyce and celebrate them.

Yesterday, I spoke about a bridge between the pagan world and the Christian world and that bridge was St. Brigid.

I want to talk about another bridge today and that is Caragh Bridge in Kildare. For the second time since 2016, the bridge has been substantially damaged. This means a large part of the population of Caragh has been cut off from the other part. It is causing great disruption in getting to school and getting to work. It is also causing huge disruption to the businesses in Caragh which do not have passing traffic. As this is an historic monument, permission must be sought from the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. I have written to both to ask them to give their permission very quickly for the work that needs to be done. Tenders are being sought at present. There is a bigger issue here. The bridge is not fit for purpose with regard to the quality and quantity of vehicles traversing it. There should be another bridge. I also ask for an assessment of the bridges in Kildare. There is a large number of bridges because of two canals, various rivers and our railway works. I am very concerned not only about Caragh Bridge but also Moore's Bridge and, of course, I also have to mention the necessity for a new bridge crossing in Newbridge.