Rejoyce ... Irish Mps Save Festival

He is the man literary Ireland fears most. Stephen Joyce, the highly litigious grandson of Ireland's greatest writer, James Joyce, has devoted his life to fiercely protecting his grandfather's copyright, setting his lawyers on those foolhardy enough to take the Joyce name in vain or to reproduce Joyce's words without consent.

Few are spared. He has targeted publishing houses, internet readings, an Edinburgh fringe musical using Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses, and even an Irish composer who requested permission to quote 18 words of Finnegans Wake and received a refusal letter saying: "To put it politely, my wife and I don't like your music."

But now, fearful for this month's mammoth celebrations of Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, Irish MPs yesterday rushed through emergency legislation which will prevent Mr Joyce from suing the government and the National Library over an exhibition which displays 500 pages of Joyce manuscripts bought for €12.6m in 2002. "James Joyce and Ulysses" forms the centrepiece of the Rejoyce festival commemorating the centenary of Bloomsday, the day on which Ulysses was set.

Stephen Joyce had warned the government and the library he would take any copyright infringement seriously.

Mr Joyce, now in his 70s, is the writer's only living descendent. He lives in France and has made considerable sums from suing over copyright infringement and from fees for rights.

Already, during the Bloomsday celebrations, a stage adaptation of Joyce's Exiles was shelved, and the business press reported that Mr Joyce had acted to block the promotion of a special edition wine, the Cuvée James Joyce.

The government said it was acting to close a copyright loophole which affected all writers. But intellectuals were quick to bemoan a culture of fear surrounding the representation of Joyce's works.

Senator David Norris, a Joycean scholar, told the Irish senate: "It is an astonishing irony that a man such as James Joyce, who fought for freedom of expression ... and committed himself so totally against censorship, should now find his works being ... removed from public gaze by his own estate."