Salman Rushdie honoured with UCD Joyce prize

SALMAN RUSHDIE was last night honoured by one of Ireland’s oldest universities with an award in memory of writer James Joyce, his greatest inspiration.

Accepting the Joyce Award, Rushdie, whose controversial The Satanic Verses forced him into hiding for 10 years, praised the Ulysses author for teaching him to be daring in his writing.

“There is one thing I tried to learn from him [Joyce] which is a daring of language,” the Indian-born author said.

“My little contribution has been to create an Indian English to go alongside the Irish English, Caribbean English and Australian English.”

He was honoured by University College Dublin’s Literary & Historical Society and joins an elite and diverse list including former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, author Bill Bryson and Hollywood comedy star Will Ferrell.

Rushdie, an atheist, was raised a Sunni Muslim, and after The Satanic Verses was published in 1989 he lived under an Iranian fatwa, or religious decree, calling for his death.

He said the Joyce Award was an emotional honour.

“James Joyce was probably more of an inspiration to me than any other writer ever has been,” he said.

“To get an award with his name on it is a really moving thing, I’m very happy to have it.”

Rushdie addressed hundreds of students and entertained them with a passage containing “pornographic tulip material” from his latest novel The Enchantress of Florence.