The Chief: “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” from Dubliners — A Great Story Cuts Across National, Religious, Ethnic, and Gender Boundaries It had been awhile since I had read “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” by James Joyce, a short story of Home Rule, politics, Irish Nationalism, the Catholic Church, stout, class, realpolitik, campaigning, British colonialism, poetry, pride, and Charles Parnell. You know, all things prototypically Irish.