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IT’S BLOOMSDAY TODAY, and James Joyce fans all over the world are celebrating his literary masterpieces.
Here’s a mini compendium of facts about the author and his life to mark the day that’s in it (and you’ll allow us just the one about the eighties animation Ulysses 31)…
1. Before Ulysses was published legally in America in 1934 the US Postal Service seized and burned hundreds of illegal copies in the 1920s. Ulysses was published in serial form in The Little Review journal, but was banned by a court in 1921 for being ‘obscene’.
2. The character Molly Bloom from Ulysses was based on Joyce’s wife Nora Barnacle. The day on which the novel is set – 16 June 1904 – is the day that the author met Barnacle. It is said however that she rarely read any of his work, which he was more than a little displeased about. The couple had two children, Georgio and Lucia.
3. James Joyce had terrible eyesight and it thought to have had around 25 surgeries thoughout his life. According to the James Joyce Centre the author shared the same eye specialist with Eamon de Valera – Dr Vogt in Zurich. Apparently Dr. Vogt charged de Valera a fortune, but never charged Joyce a penny
4. Last year singer Kate Bush finally got permission to use extracts from Ulysses for a song she had written more than 20 years previously. Bush wrote The Sensual World in 1989 but wasn’t granted permission until last April. In January of this year the copyright on Joyce’s works expired, meaning permission to perform or use extracts from the work is no longer needed from the writer’s notoriously protective estate
5. Ulysses Seen is an app and online comic adaptation of Joyce’s masterpiece. It’s an ongoing project and artist Robert Berry has already completed about 125 pages. He says it will probably take about ten years to complete. Berry will be in Dublin this weekend to mark Bloomsday and he’s published ten new pages on the National Library of Ireland’s Flickr stream.
6. As Manchán Magan pointed out earlier this week, when Joyce and his family lived in Paris the author was palling around with the likes of Hemingway, Beckett, Ezra Pound, TS Eliot and Yeats.
7. The cartoon series Ulysses 31 has absolutely nothing to do with Joyce’s seminal work. It was broadcast in Ireland by RTÉ in 1985 and 1986. It was based on Odysseus, a Greek hero of mythology, who was known as Ulysses in Latin. Cult band Devo were originally rumoured to have written the theme tune for the show, but singer Mark Mothersbaugh said in an interview last year that he wasn’t even familiar with the cartoon.
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Sounds idilic but what about employment?
@David Grey: and is there many single women there.. Another important question
@David Grey: nail, head
Married and willing would do too
@Peter King: Yep, Mayo is known for its nail head factories. Plenty of employment there
@David Grey:
You’ll be far to busy making fire and building shelters than worrying about employment. Scavenging wild mushrooms and berries for breakfast, trapping wild grouse and distilling your own urine. Won’t be enough hours in the day as it is.
@David Grey: How about creating your own job?
@Acedeuce: Fleeced with them, if you get my drift.
@Tweed Cap: you should see the magic mushrooms coming up after the rain the last few days. Happy days.
When Sam goes .. I’ll go!
What are the broadband speeds like?
@Peter King: and is there shopping delivery
There hasn’t been a band around in years , since they closed the hall
@Peter King: somewhere between “slow” and ” what’s broadband??”…..basically like all of rural Ireland
achill island. now that is a place i;d like to live
@Just Some Guy: You haven’t been then? Went there for long weekend in our camper van left after one day!
Skangers need not apply. If only
Moved from London to remote Mayo, I’m able to work from anywhere and it made sense when we had a kid, 20 years living in NW London to the remote west of Ireland was a daunting thought, but it was amazing, also commuted regularly back to the city via Knock, it was a breeze and much quicker than getting to Dublin, a fantastic place to live, no longer there as I need to engage with Dublin and we’re still figuring out some vital assistances for ‘rural’ Ireland, transport, broadband, etc. It’s maddening how small the island is and how we’ve not yet mastered our way around it, don’t suppose it would be very rural/remote if we did.
Take 3 generations to be fully accepted by the community
Till you look at the world it all a con , control and greed by a few. Ireland is tiny with a small population , it could be great country throughout for all. Even if we took a small percentage of the people that seek work in the UK our economy could grow.
Be there in a minute, hang on
Land of The Yews…….
Moving home is not a simple solution or an easy thing to do . You have to leave behind your families and friends . In short you have to leave behind your support system !
@Frank Dubogovik: FYI,broadband speeds here in Westport faster than most areas in Dublin
Pardon my language but $uck Los Vegas ours is real
Agreed. Though Westport may be the exception rather than the rule, its broadband speed is well ahead of the norm.
Not to mention the fantastic social life!
have your say