THIS YEAR marks the centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s groundbreaking work of modernist fiction, Ulysses, but while that book, and its author, are profoundly rooted in Dublin, Joyce himself had Galway connections.
Joyce is a Galway/Mayo name, and his wife, Nora Barnacle, was from Bowling Green in Galway city. Joyce sometimes wrote about Galway, most famously in the poem, ‘She Weeps Over Rahoon’, and in the short story, ‘The Dead’.
Indeed, even the opening words of Ulysses - “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan” - carries a roundabout reference to Galway, as Mulligan was based on the writer Oliver St John Gogarty, a sometime Joyce friend who had proprietorship of the Renvyle House Hotel. Also, it has been argued that Molly Bloom’s recollection of being kissed “under the Moorish wall”, is a reference to Nora Barnacle’s memories of being courted in Galway, near the Spanish Arch.
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Joyce, and his connections to Galway, are explored in the book, Joyce County by Ray Burke, which has been published by the Letterfrack based Artisan House. It will be launched by the author Nuala O’Connor - who last year penned a magnificent novel about Nora Barnacle, entitled Nora - in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, tomorrow, Friday February 4 at 6.30pm.
Written in an accessible style for the general reader, the book contains considerable new information and gives context and fresh insights into Nora Barnacle’s influence on Joyce’s writing, not only in Ulysses, but throughout his work.
This edition of Joyce County is updated from the original publication from Currach Press in 2016. This new hardback version will bring more than 120 additional items of text and notes, a foreword by Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins; a comprehensive index; and original illustrations by Raymond Murphy and Joe Boske.
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“The first edition has been out of print for some time,” said Ray Burke [pictured above], “and, particularly for this centenary year of Ulysses, and of Nora Barnacle’s last visit to her native Galway, I was keen to have it back on bookshelves. I was delighted that Artisan House, a Galway company believed in it and am pleased that this second edition has many new features including the President’s foreword.”
Ray Burke is a Galwegian and a graduate of NUI Galway. A journalist for more than 40 years, he was news editor of the Irish Press and chief news editor of RTÉ News. Since retiring, he has written for The Irish Times and the Century Ireland website.
All are welcome to the launch. For more see www.artisanhouse.ie
