The Georgian house, built in 1760, that sits on the River Liffey at Usher’s Quay in Dublin Ireland is an internationally significant literary address. 15 Usher’s Island, Dublin, is the house James Joyce would visit every Little Christmas / 6 January to take part in festivities at the dinner table of his great-aunts who resided in the house and ran a music school. These visits form the foundation for Joyce’s short story “The Dead” which appears as the last story in the collection Dubliners. Joyce often wrote about the circle of life - there's Finnegans Wake with its play on the French Fin and Again and the double meaning of Wake, and in The Dead, Gabriel considers the snow falling on "all the living and all the dead". The story begins with a lively party and ends with a death. Hemingway described this story as quite simply the greatest short story ever written. John Huston made a film masterpiece of the story.

Having been derelict for 25 years, it was in the year 2000 that Brendan Kilty, SC acquired the house and set about ensuring its survival. A huge part of the work involved rebuilding the top floor. In the 1960s or thereabouts this floor was taken off and the pitched roof replaced with corrugated metal. The area had seen a decline as the river trade disappeared and nearby Thomas Street was no longer one of the city's principal trading streets. As the roof valleys and gutters at 15 Usher's Island ceased to function properly and let water in, the easy and cheap option was just to demolish that part of the roof. Restoration has involved selecting appropriate roof slates and bricks. The architects followed best conservation practice guidelines, which involved a number of essentials such as specifying certain types of paint, plasterwork and mortar that work well with the fabric of the building. This beautifully proportioned house was the classic Georgian wreck, with peeling wallpaper, dusty wooden floors and plasterwork buried beneath layers of paint - the potential was huge. Many timber elements survive, such as window surrounds, shutters, floors and the bannister, There is a large "soirée" room to the front, where guests recited stories and played music, and the dining room to the rear.

The wonder of the restoration has been the ability to capture the spirit of the place while making it cater for 21st century requisites. Good conservation has married with the cultural significance of a building and modern day usage. In a beautiful juxtaposition of old and new, Santiago Calatrava's James Joyce bridge - with its astonishing scale - practically meets the front door of number 15.