James Joyce

For James Joyce, Galway was the greatest source of material he ever found, though not in the conventional sense. From Galway came Nora Barnacle, Joyce's wife and the inspiration for Molly Bloom, Gretta Conroy, Anna Livia Plurabelle and most probably, a great deal more.

Nora'a family resided on Bowling Green St, though she herself was primarily raised by her grandmother in Whitehall, St. Augustine Street. As the story goes, in 1904, the free-spirited Nora was given a beating from an uncle, for associating with a Protestant, she left for Dublin soon after and met James on Nassau St. in Dublin in June; by October they had eloped together.

Perhaps the most prominent appearance of the Galway area in James Joyce's writing is The Dead, the crowning masterpiece of his short story collection, Dubliners. Nora had once told James about Michael Bodkin, a young man she had dated in her youth. Michael had fallen gravely ill, and upon her leaving for Dublin he had struggled from his bed to sing farewell to her from under an apple tree on Nun's Island. Michael died soon after. The story moved Joyce so greatly that he immortalised it in The Dead.

Jeremy M. Usher
November 2000