On Culture Night, 23 September 2022, the James Joyce Centre hosted a number of events and exhibitions dedicated to Joyce’s professional and personal relationships with women: the publishers, patrons, typists, and many others who were instrumental in Joyce’s life as an artist.
Ulysses and the Women Behind the Scenes was a conversation about the women that have inspired and supported the life and work of James Joyce. We were delighted to welcome Harriet Cole (née Weaver), whose grandaunt, Harriet Shaw Weaver, was one of the most important and influential women in Joyce’s career. She was in conversation with special guests Clare Hutton, curator of the exhibition Women and the Making of Ulysses at the Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, Caitríona Ní Threasaigh, an actress who has been performing Molly for almost a decade, and Lucy Brennan-Shiel, a multimedia artist who has made a documentary and a new album with a dedication to Weaver. Some of the items from the Women and the Making of Ulysses exhibition, including an original Shakespeare & Co. copy of Ulysses, were on display.
In addition, actress Caitríona Ní Threasaigh performed a riveting extract of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from Ulysses. Molly’s soliloquy, the extraordinary final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, remains after 100 years one of the finest passages of writing in modern literature. Joyce documents a woman’s thoughts in an uncensored stream of consciousness interwoven with memories and fantasies. Regarded as scandalous and brilliant in its intimacy, the soliloquy is captivating and enthralling. Caitríona’s performance was a favourite of the night.
To celebrate 100 years of Ulysses, this year’s Bloomsday Festival will fill Dublin City with all the joy, fun and creativity of James Joyce’s epic novel. With over 100 different events to be encountered, spread over a whole week of entertainment, the festival focus will be on celebrating the city, its theatres, art, parks, beaches, music, waterways, streets, squares, pubs and people.
Sample the real places and spaces of Ulysses with a swim in the Forty Foot and visit to the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove, fill your senses with lemon soap and lots more at besides at Sweny’s Chemist. Take the new ‘Paddy Dignam’ tour and Joyce Exhibition at Glasnevin Cemetery, listen to the bell ringers of Taney Road Church ring the bells that set Leopold Bloom off on his wanderings ‘ Heigh Ho Heigh ho’.
Walk into eternity on Sandymount Strand with national treasure Eanna Ni Lamhna. Sample the gastronomic delights of Davy Byrnes pub where a stage will be set up for two days of street performances, enjoy the splendor of the reading room of the National Library with a special evening opening on Bloomsday or why not simply feed a seagull on O’ Connell Bridge.
Highlights of this years festival are certainly the exciting range of theatrical and musical performances, including the exceptional Corn Exchange’s Dubliners in Smock Alley and enchanting evening concert of Chamber Music at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Not to be missed for Ulysses 100 is Barry McGovern reading the entire Ulysses on the Abbey Theatre’s Peacock stage.
The Bloomsday Film Festival will be live throughout the city in the IFI, Sugar Club and James Joyce Centre. Joycean and literary themed short and feature films will bring us on an incredible cinematic odyssey.
Visit the glorious MOLI Bloomsday Programme at the Museum of Literature Ireland, where Joyce attended college before setting off on his European adventures. Take a Ulysses themed walk along the Royal Canal or follow in Father Conmee’s footsteps. Enjoy a feast of Ulysses and Joyce art exhibitions at the National Gallery, James Joyce Centre, Oliver Cornet Gallery, Smock Alley and the Graphic Studio.
For younger audiences a special reading of the Cat and The Devil, Joyce’s children’s story written for his grandson Stephen wil take place at the James Joyce Centre, while the Chester Beatty will once again run their Joyce inspired online workshop.
On Bloomsday itself, immerse yourself in a glorious afternoon of Ulysses Readings and Songs in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, as comedians, actors, writers and musicians guide you through the novel.
Once again, we will bring Bloomsday and all its fun back to the heart of the Hibernian Metropolis. www.bloomsdayfestival.ie
On Thursday 21st April the James Joyce Centre hosted Weaver of the Wind – a conversation to unweave Harriet Shaw Weaver’s unique and complex role within the legacy of Ulysses.
This online webinar was presented by the people behind 4 diverse Ulysses centenary projects; “Weaver of the Wind” a short film by Lucy Brennan Shiel, The Ulysses 100 Project E-book produced by Susan Leybourne and Marion Byrne, the online premiere of “In token of gratitude” a short documentary with Harriet Shaw Weaver’s great-niece Harriet Cole ( nee Weaver) and “Women and the Making of Ulysses” in Austin, Texas curated by Clare Hutton.
James Joyce dedicated the No 1 hand-printed First Edition copy of Ulysses to Harriet Shaw Weaver with the inscription ‘In token of gratitude’ and significantly referenced her within Ulysses as “Weaver of the Wind.” Both quotes highlight her importance in the life and work of James Joyce. In our diverse ways, we are giving voice to her quiet modesty and exploring her crucial underpinning and understanding of his genius.
On the Road with Penguin Classics is a podcast that takes a stroll around the world’s favourite books. In each episode author and editor Henry Eliot travels to a different literary location to explore a brilliant book in the company of a remarkable reader. Professor Anne Fogarty joins Henry in Dublin to recreate a day in the life of Leopold Bloom. They visit the Martello Tower where the novel opens, Eccles Street, Davy Byrnes and the National Library. and they meet Darina Gallagher, director of the James Joyce Centre.
The James Joyce Centre went on tour to Duke Street for a fantastic birthday bash on Feb 2nd 2022. Guests gathered at Davy Byrnes pub for a performance of ‘Lunchtime with Bloom’, an adaptation of Chapter 8 of Ulysses by James Joyce. It was performed by the JoyceStagers in a new adaptation by Val O Donnell, it was staged in the iconic setting of Davy Byrnes Pub, now boasting a first edition of Ulysses on view to the public in ‘Molly’s Room’.
An Post has unveiled two new stamps to celebrate the centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s celebrated book Ulysses.
The Ulysses 100 stamps from An Post were designed by Amsterdam-based Irish designers, The Stone Twins. The stamp design is intentionally unorthodox, challenging, and unexpected, as well as modernist – exactly what you would expect from Ulysses.
Inspired by James Joyce’s use of the ‘Gilbert Schema’ within Ulysses, the two-stamp design consists of a total of 18 sections, which signify the number of chapters in the book. The stamp design overlays the colours and structure defined in Joyce’s ‘Gilbert Schema’, with photographs captured by renowned photographer JJ Clarke, a doctor from Castleblayney in Co. Monaghan who took vivid images of daily life in Dublin when he was a medical student there between 1897 and 1904. As Ulysses is particularly famous for challenging the conventions of language, the inverted type used in the stamp design was chosen to reflect Joyce’s experimental use of language.
The Ulysses 100 stamps and a special First Day Cover commemorative envelope are available at selected post offices nationwide and online at www.anpost.com/shop
An Post CEO, David McRedmond said: “The claims for Ulysses as the greatest novel of the 20th Century, and the first great modern novel, remain vibrant. Its 100th anniversary shows something else: that Ulysses is as relevant now as a work of art as when it was written. These stamps reflect the unique mix of modernism and classicism that define the novel.” Internationally renowned Joycean expert, Senator David Norris said: “Frozen in time the images on these stamps illustrate remarkably the period of James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1904. It is tempting to think that in the world of fiction these stamps might have adorned Bloom’s letter to Martha Clifford. I congratulate An Post on their production to mark the centenary of the publication of Ulysses.”
Tell me about Ulysses? Stephen, the 22-year-old protagonist who previously featured in Joyce’s earlier novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, begins his day at the Martello Tower in Sandycove, while 38-year-old Leopold Bloom, a Jewish husband, father, and advertising executive starts his day of wandering from his home at 7 Eccles Street in North Dublin.
Set over 19 hours, Ulysses chronicles the encounters and interactions of the pair as they go about their day-to-day life. The narrative features streams of consciousness and inner-monologues from the characters, allowing readers complete access to their unfiltered thoughts on the places and people they encounter. It also features their views on the present, memories of the past, and concerns about the future.
Ulysses was first serialised in 18 separate parts in the American journal ‘The Little Review’ from March 1918 to December 1920 and then published in its entirety in Paris by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, Joyce’s 40th birthday. Beach, an American-born bookseller, and publisher, founded a bookshop and lending library in Paris called Shakespeare and Company in 1919. The shop specialised in books published in Great Britain and the United States and was a hub for expatriate writers to immerse themselves in the literary life of Paris.
What is the ‘Gilbert Schema’? Inspired by James Joyce’s use of the ‘Gilbert Schema’ within Ulysses, the stamp design consists of 18 sections which signify the number of chapters in the book. Recognising that readers needed support in grasping the nuanced allusions and intricate structures of the novel, the ‘Gilbert Schema’ was an 18-part episodic table produced by Joyce to help readers understand the enormous complexity of Ulysses.
The Ulysses100 digital platform has been developed by the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), in partnership with the Government of Ireland, to promote and collect information on events relating to the centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Many events, exhibitions and artistic commissions are planned for this year across the globe, and our hope is this website will allow visitors to easily access information about – and participate in – these events. The site is updated weekly, and will promote events through social media using the hashtag #Ulysses100.
If you have an event, exhibition or any activity (no matter how large or small) relating to the Ulysses centenary, you can upload information, images, audio and video to the site. From major exhibitions to small meet-ups, we would love to know – and let the world know – what you are planning. Just click here to make a submission.
Ulysses100 is also a collecting mechanism to record the centenary activities for future study and research – the site will remain active online throughout 2022 and 2023, at which point its content will be accessible in perpetuity through the museum’s digital archive at moli.ie. We hope to further populate the site after the centenary with further material relating to centenary events and happenings, where possible.
Developed with the support of the Government of Ireland, University College Dublin, the National Library of Ireland and Ebow.
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