GERRY SMYTHwith a round-up of the literary news of the week...
Re-Joyce with a little Spanish intrigue
One of the most intriguing items on the four-day programme for this year's Bloomsday celebrations is a gathering of Spanish writers who call themselves The Order of the Finnegans. This group has, apparently, been visiting Dublin around Bloomsday to pay homage for the past few years and doing it their way. A book of the same title, La Orden del Finnegans,will be launched and a round-table discussion will take place in the Cervantes institute in Lincoln Place – almost adjacent to that Joycean landmark, Sweny's chemist – on Tuesday at 4.30.
Among those taking part is the Spanish novelist Enrique Vila-Matas, whose recent novel, Dublinesca, will appear in English translation next year. Anyone who has read his semi-fictional work Bartleby and Cowill note the Joycean eclecticism of his writing style. His fellow members of this "literary collective" are Eduardo Lago, Antonio Soler, Jordi Solder, Malcolm Otero, Jose Antonio and Garriga Vela.
The traditional annual walks and tours are, of course, also on the agenda and footsloggers can gather to walk In the Footsteps of Leopold Bloom – (today at 1pm; tomorrow 2pm; Monday at 11am; Tuesday at 2pm). This perambulation takes up the theme of food as an issue of social, cultural and political life in Dublin in 1904. Joyce Circular (today at 11am; tomorrow at 12pm; and Tuesday at 11am) includes several Joycean landmarks at north city locations.
Dubliners(today and Monday at 2pm) is a ramble through the city of the short stories in Dubliners and the Bloomsday Walk (Wednesday 10am/11am/12pm/ 1pm/1.30pm/2pm/2.30pm/3pm/ 3.30pm/4pm) features some of the key northside locations from the novel which Joyce predicted would "keep the professors busy for centuries". All walks start at the James Joyce centre (jamesjoyce.ie).
Today and tomorrow at 7pm in the Joyce Centre, actor Donal O'Kelly will perform his one-man show Jimmy Joyced!while Joyce (and Beckett enthusiast) Barry McGovern will explore the songs and music that feature in Ulysses in the Dublin Writers' Museum tomorrow at 2pm. He will also be at the Martello Tower in Sandycove on the 16th, where he will read the 'Ithaca' episode of The Book.
The James Joyce bus tour ventures into the suburbs on Monday, leaving the Joyce Centre at 10am. On Tuesday, Joyce scholar Danis Rose will give a talk on Finnegans Wakein the James Joyce Centre at 7pm while Meeting House Square in Temple Bar is the rendezvous point on Bloomsday for all Joyceans who wish to proclaim their creed and join in public readings and performance of songs from Ulysses(11-3pm).
Literary figures gather in support of abuse victims
Tomorrow week (Sunday June 20th) a number of literary figures will take part in an event being held to reflect on sexual abuse in Ireland and to raise funds for the One in Four organisation which supports victims of abuse. Roddy Doyle, Joseph O’Connor, Tom Murphy, Lia Mills, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Theo Dorgan are among the authors who will read, with music from Christy Moore, Eleanor McEvoy, Karan Casey and Don Baker.
The evening, to be chaired by Theo Dorgan, will also include readings of work by Seamus Heaney and Colm Ó Snodaigh of Kila. Lia Mills has written a piece for the event and actress Dearbhle Crotty will perform from Tom Murphy's Baile- gangaire.
It all takes place in St Stephen’s Church (the Pepper Cannister), off Merrion Square at 7.30pm. Tickets are €25, tel: 01-6624070, e-mail fundraising@oneinfour.org or see oneinfour.org
