A bridge too far as ambition outstrips reality.

(From Irish Independent)

STILL sitting on the bridge, Mary. The James Joyce Bridge, that is. A reader who works in the Arbour Hill area agrees with me that it is a fine piece of work. As alunchtime pedestrian he has stood on it, sat on it, marvelled at the strength of theglass/perspex on the railings while wondering how graffiti proof it is, and he has takentime to read the bronze commemorative plaques, two in number. Aha!

On the eastern side of the bridge is the English version, giving the date of opening, name of the bridge, its designer and so on; on the western side the Gaelic version, and oh dear! says the reader.

Quite rightly, in his opinion, the structure is called the Droichead James Joyce (though more nitpicking observers might quibble here, since the master's second name is a mereanglicisation of the Gaelic, and his first is no stranger to Gaelic either), and the city ismentioned twice, first as Baile Atha Cliath and two lines below as 'Baile Atha Claith', castin metal for posterity, as he says.

Joyce would surely be amused, says the reader, who is Patrick Farrell of Maynooth. Indeed, Joyce might have savoured this permanent and definitive bolloxing of the name of his native city, having himself described Irish art as the cracked looking glass of aservant. And anyway with Horace he could claim:Exegi monumentum aereperennius - I have made a monument more lasting than bronze.

I went up the river the other night to have a look for myself at the fine print on SantiagoCalatrava's bridge. The bridge gleams with light, from the sides of the car section and from underneath the glass on the pedestrians' sections; this beautiful object stands aloneand lonely, waiting for the surrounding development it is intended to inspire. But sure enough, there on the western side, set into the pavement, is the offending 'Claith', in reference to the mayorship of Dermot Lacey, the man who declared it open.

Mr Farrell is forgiving; the howler of the engraver, and of the commissioner of the engraver, reminds him of a stone plaque on his parish church, commissioned by 'theDuke of Lenster'. The artisan in question returned and carved an 'I' above the offendingword and the '*' symbol below.