Search Results for 'Nora Barnacle'

THE LIFE of Nora Barnacle, the Galwegian, wife, and muse of James Joyce, will be celebrated through song in a show taking place this weekend.

Nora Barnacle, the Galwegian who married James Joyce’ and inspired some of his greatest writings, will be the subject of a new radio documentary.

NORA BARNACLE, the Galwegian who was James Joyce’s wife, muse, best friend, and source of strength will be celebrated in a new work by Tom Cullivan.

NUI Galway alumni and friends will celebrate the connection between James Joyce and Galway city with a pre-Bloomsday recital in Newman House, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin on Thursday next 14 June at 7.30pm. The recital is part of a series of Bloomsweek recitals featuring Ireland’s leading classical guitarist, John Feeley, accompanied by NUI Galway graduate and James Joyce enthusiast, Professor Fran O’Rourke of UCD, who will also be providing background information on Joyce.

WHILE JAMES Joyce will be forever associated with Dublin, Galway played a role in his life and writings through his wife Nora Barnacle.

Public interviews, readings, and talks will take place with Chic’s Nile Rodgers (Hotel Meyrick, July 19); actors John Mahoney and Rondi Reed (Hotel Meyrick, July 19); and Fintan O’Toole will interview Mary Robinson and later Tom Murphy and Garry Hynes (Town Hall, July 27).

In 1883, a sub-committee of the town commissioners reported on the sanitary conditions of the houses in this area. Some were occupied in tenements, others were held by single families. “In none of these houses is there any provision as to water closets, privies or drains which in itself is deplorable; but your committee feel it would be but ill discharging their duty if they stopped short at such an exposition and remain silent as to the absence of every feature which would recommend them as habitations for human beings. The poor can only hope for impoverished dwellings, but when a gentleman enters into commercial relations with them, and on a well intended profitable scale to himself .... he should not be exempted from the obligation of providing them with accommodation somewhat better than Indian wigwams.”

Nora Barnacle left Galway early in 1904. She was 20 years old, a strong-willed girl running from a tyrannical uncle who disapproved of her latest boy friend. Within weeks of her arrival in Dublin she would become the muse and lover of James Joyce and the inspiration of some and his greatest works — Greta Conroy in The Dead, Bertha the common law wife in Exiles and Molly Bloom in Ulysses — all share some of Nora’s character and experiences. In October of that same year Nora and Jim would elope to Europe and in due course step on to the pages of literary history. She would return to her native city only twice during her 47 years of exile before dying in Zurich in 1951, having lived 67 tumultuous years.

This year Mullingar will host a number of events on Bloomsday, Wednesday June 16 to celebrate its connections to the famous author of Ulysses, James Joyce.