Why did James Joyce leave Ireland in 1904?

James Joyce left Ireland in October 1904 primarily to pursue a life with Nora Barnacle, a young woman from Galway whom he had met earlier that year.12

Beyond his personal relationship, Joyce’s departure was driven by his profound disillusionment with his home country. He viewed the prevailing Irish traditions, religious influence, and cultural nationalism of the time as evidence of "parochialism". Having renounced his Roman Catholic faith and rejected the social and literary expectations of Dublin, he felt compelled to "look abroad" to develop his work as an artist. By leaving, he sought to escape the constraints of a society he felt he was in "open war" with, choosing to live on the European continent where he could write and live according to his own principles, which included a refusal to marry in a formal ceremony.12