Joyce's Dublin - E4 - The Dead; Distant Music and The Lass of Aughrim

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?

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?

TS Eliot described it as one of the greatest short stories ever written. James Joyce finished the final story in his collection Dubliners, The Dead, in Trieste 1907. This story of the Misses Morkan’s annual gathering of family, friends and music students is framed by the elderly sisters’ nephew Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta and a personal epiphany triggered by the fragment of a song. Professors Declan Kiberd, Anne Fogarty and Gerardine Meaney help us unpack the story and find out why it has such resonance and power.