Book Launch

1 February 2025 at 6pm

The James Joyce Centre was proud to host the Irish launch of a phenomenal new collection of Nigerian and Irish poetry on Saturday, February 1st at 6pm.

Trailing a Sea-Weed Cord: Contemporary Irish and Nigerian Poets on Wole Soyinka’s ‘Ulysses: Notes From Here to My Joyce Class’ is an extraordinary endeavour that fuses Ireland and Nigeria’s rich literary heritages. This year marks the 91st birthday of Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Nobel Laureate for Literature, who while imprisoned in 1966 wrote a poem entitled “Ulysses: From Here to my Joyce Class.” In honour of Prof. Soyinka, five Irish poets selected by Poetry Ireland and five Nigerian poets each contributed a poem inspired or reacting to his poem.

An initiative of the Embassy of Ireland in Nigeria, the book was published last year by Bookcraft Africa, the publishers of Wole Soyinka’s works and is the second part of a trilogy of publications initiated by the Embassy to promote Irish-Nigerian cultural discourse and understanding.

The first being a collection of poetry, published by Quramo Publishing, called “Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold,” also featuring 5 Nigerian poets and 5 Irish poets selected by Poetry Ireland. This collection was launched to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to WB Yeats and was inspired by Chinua Achebe’s seminal novel Things Fall Apart, the title of which was taken from Yeats’ “The Second Coming.”

Trailing a Sea-Weed Cord: Contemporary Irish and Nigerian Poets on Wole Soyinka’s ‘Ulysses: Notes From Here to My Joyce Class’ features a foreword by President Michael D. Higgins and contribution from Darina Gallagher, the Director of the James Joyce Centre. The book is edited by writer and culture activist Aduke Gomez.

The launch featured readings and commentary by Aduke, Darina, Amb. Joseph Lynch, Amb. Ibiyemi Ajiboye-Roberts, and the contributors to the book.

The event was sponsored by Kinsale Spirit Company.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.