Dublin: One City, One Book

Today, Thursday, 2nd February, is the 130th anniversary of the birth of James Joyce!

Arguably Ireland’s greatest literary genius and a leading proponent of modernism in fiction, James Joyce was born at 41 Brighton Square to John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary Jane Murray, and spent his earliest years there and in Castlewood Avenue. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College and at Belvedere College before going on to University College Dublin (on St Stephen’s Green), where he studied modern languages.

Joyce left Ireland with Nora Barnacle in 1904, and was to spend the rest of his life in Italy and France, paying his last visit to Ireland in 1912. Joyce died in Zurich on the 13th January, 1941, and is buried in Zurich's Fluntern Cemetery. 

Joyce's collection of short stories, Dubliners, and the choice for Dublin: One City, One Book 2012, was first published in 1914 by Grant Richards Ltd., London.

Right: James Joyce. Image of Joyce reproduced from the original glass negative held in UCD Library Special Collections by kind permission of Helen Solterer.

Dublin City Council is delighted to announce that the 'Dublin: One City, One Book' choice for April 2012 is Dubliners by James Joyce. The chosen title will be supported by a wide range of public events and celebrations next April.

Right: Click image to view larger version.

Previous One City, One Book novels have been Flann O’Briens’s At Swim Two Birds, Sebastian Barry’s A Long, Long Way, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Ghost Light by Joseph O'Connor.

Starting in February 2012, University College, Dublin, Adult Education Centre is running a course titled 'Dublin: One City, One Book'! 

This course is designed to tie in with events in the Dublin: One City, One Book festival 2012 culminating in an extended engagement with the 2012 selected title. Students will also read the books previously chosen for the Dublin: One City, One Book festival... The focus of the course will be to situate these books as Dublin books, showing different aspects and histories of the city. The course will consider the changing place of Dublin in literature and examine different ways the city has been represented by writers. The course will build up to a sustained consideration of the Dublin: One City, One Book choice for 2012 making full use of events staged by Dublin City Libraries. (extract)

Details of the UCD course titled 'Dublin: One City, One Book.

The winner of the short story competition is 'Coole' by Jimi McDonnell. The winning entry was chosen by Joseph O'Connor and will receive a €100 book token.

'Coole' by Jimi McDonnell

There was the sound the ground made underfoot when you were at Coole Park. He had tried to explain it her, had asked her to listen but she would just laugh at him and tell him he was a spacer. That was during the time when the slightest brushing of their hands had them tingling. They were mad and ravenous for each other.

Thursday 28th April 7pm

The love affair between Abbey actress, Molly Allgood and playwright JM Synge is captured in the letters of Molly Allgood. Dramatised readings and music with Joseph O'Connor, Kathy Rose O'Brien and musicians of the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8
Admission free - Booking not necessary

Visit Farmleigh this Easter Monday, 25th April and enjoy a wonderful day celebrating Ghost Light! You can relax and listen to actor Stephen Holland reading from Ghost Light, or if you are feeling more energetic why not take to the dancefloor in Farmleigh's beautiful Ballroom and learn to dance to music performed by a string quartet.