After a visit to Dublin in the summer of 1909, Joyce brought his younger sister Eva back to Trieste with him. She was impressed by the cinemas she saw there and suggested that it would be a good idea to open a cinema in Dublin. At the time, films featured as part of variety performances in theatres, and there was no dedicated cinema in Dublin. Joyce got financial backing from a group of businessmen in Trieste and returned to Dublin at the end of 1909 to set up the Volta, the first cinema in Dublin. It opened on 20 December 1909 at a premises at number 45 Mary Street. The Volta showed silent Italian-made black-and-white films accompanied by live music from a string quartet, and initially its novelty made it quite popular. However, after only four months, the backers felt the enterprise had failed, and in June 1910 the Volta was sold.