A literary roundup
Ulysses sails on
There is no end to the wonders of Joycean scholarship. Among the feast of reading in the second issue of the Dublin James Joyce Journal,there's a comprehensive essay on Garryowen, the champion Irish Red Setter who appears in three of the episodes of Ulysses, Cyclops, Nausicaa and Circe. Author Vivien Igoe explains that the dog, born in 1876, named after Garryowen in Limerick and bred and owned by James Giltrap, was a household name in the latter decades of the 19th century. Mrs Giltrap bred and showed dogs too. Their daughter Josephine married William A Murray, a brother of Joyce's mother.
Of Garryowen's immortalisation in Ulysses, Igoe writes: "When Garryowen is in the Citizen's care in Barney Kiernan's pub he is portrayed as 'that bloody mangy mongrel'. For artistic purposes, Joyce distorts the character and appearance of the dog, as he does the character of Michael Cusack on whom the Citizen is based. Prize-winning setters are magnificent dogs with a kindly expression and are certainly not in the mangy mongrel category." Another reference in the novel which describes Garryowen as a lovely dog that almost talked it was so human would, says Igoe, be more in character with the real Garryowen.
The dog’s portrait also appeared on the tin of the Garryowen pipe tobacco named after him and was also seen in ads in shops and pubs throughout the country. And the good news is that, says Igoe, there is still one to be seen in Johnnie Fox’s pub in Glencullen, Co Dublin.
The Dublin James Joyce Journal(€10) is edited by Luca Crispi and Anne Fogarty and is published by the UCD James Joyce Research Centre in association with the National Library of Ireland.
New Yorker story
It's all happening for Irish writer Kevin Barry (above) this weather. He makes his New Yorker debut with the short story Fjord of Killaryin the February 1st edition of the magazine, which has a strong track- record of publishing Irish short stories. A production of his own adaptation of the stories from his collection, There Are Little Kingdoms,is to be staged at the Keegan Theatre in Washington DC in March, while his first novel, City of Bohane, will be published next year by Cape.
Talks on Cullenswood
Cullenswood House on Oakley Road in Ranelagh, Dublin, where Patrick Pearse founded his school, Scoil Éanna, in 1908 – and where Michael Collins was said to have hidden during the War of Independence – is the subject of a new book, Cullenswood House: Old Ghosts and New Stories, edited by Victoria White. Published by A&A Farmar, it was launched in the house on Wednesday. The refurbished building now houses Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg. Today, the famous landmark is open to visitors and various contributors to the book will give lectures including: Elaine Sisson and Finola O'Kane on Pearse in Cullenswood (2pm): writer Éilis Ní Dhuibhne on Scoil Bhríde, the adjacent school, in Cullenswood's gardens, and actor Deirdre Donnelly on growing up in the original house (4pm). Admission free.
Poets’ Gallery
Poets including Thomas McCarthy, Catriona O’Reilly, Seamus Heaney and Eilean Ní Chuilleanáin are among the line-up for a weekly poetry reading series that the National Gallery will host on Wednesdays, starting on February 3rd at 1pm.
