Joyce's Dublin - E1 - The Dead; 15 Usher’s Island, Joyce’s Dublin 1904

The Dead is regarded by many as the greatest short story of the twentieth century. The closing story of Dubliners, first published in 1914, it begins with a party in Ushers Island on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany and the last night of Christmas. Hear the full story read by renowned actor Barry McGovern.

James Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead’ is set in the heart of Dublin City on January 6th 1904. As part of our audio podcast series Barry McGovern takes a walk through the city of ‘The Dead’ and explores the landscape which frames the story from 15 Usher’s Island to the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street. What remains of Joyce’s Dublin today and what inspired his locations? ‘The Dead’ brings us on a journey from the quays on the River Liffey looking towards the Phoenix Park and references a city which can still be found today. Have a look at our slideshow of photographs from the National Library collections and from Dublin today to get a sense of the city of ‘The Dead’.

At the end of the night we leave 15 Usher’s Island and follow Gabriel and Gretta Conroy’s journey up river and down O’Connell St (then Sackville Street) to the Gresham Hotel. With Professor Anne Fogarty we re-visit the Gresham Hotel and Gabriel’s own moment of self-revelation. Gerardine Meaney and Declan Kiberd explore the story’s love stories and how they relate to Joyce and his own life’s love, Nora Barnacle. Love and loss are intertwined in the personal epiphanies in The Dead and through the archives we look at what was happening in Joyce’s own life with the death of his mother May and his family’s decline into poverty. Declan Kiberd, Gerardine Meaney, Kevin Whelan and Anne Fogarty explore the story’s ending and that final scene of a snow covered Ireland. Is it one of despair or hope?

The Dead is rich in music from Italian opera to popular folk songs. Music and song is the soundtrack to the dinner party while the conversation around the table shares stories of Enrico Caruso and the music halls of the city. The story’s epiphany hangs on a memory provoked by a song ‘The Lass of Aughrim’. Professor Harry White unpacks the power of music in Joyce’s narrative and we discover how central a force music and song was in the author’s life. Professor White sees the story itself as an operatic composition. We visit the National Library to see sheet music of the day and from the UCD folklore collection we hear Elizabeth Cronin’s version of ‘The Lass of Aughrim’ which gives us a sense of how the song sounded in 1904. Singer and musician Noel O’Grady, who performs the music of Joyce, shares his rendition of ‘The Lass of Aughrim’ as he plays the part of Bartell D’Arcy and re-creates that moment which froze Gretta on the stairs of 15 Usher’s Island.

Joyce described The Dead as a ghost story. The ghost of Michael Furey, who as Gretta says ‘died for me’ haunts the final scenes. But the story also echoes with the ghosts of Irish history and politics. Professor Kevin Whelan peels back the layers and references from the Battle of the Boyne, the 1798 rebellion, O’Connell’s Catholic Emancipation, Parnell’s Home Rule and the tension in early 20th Century Ireland between the emerging Gaelic Nationalist movement and the Catholic middle classes. Social historian Mary Daly places the story in its contemporary politics and illuminates what is going on behind the dance scene between Gabriel and Molly Ivors when her final retort is ‘West Briton’. We look at the physical landscape of the story and the map it draws from the Wellington Monument to the O’Connell statue and the tensions between east and west both for the characters and the country. What is Joyce telling us?