Press Release
20 paintings on exhibition at the James Joyce house of "The Dead" in central Dublin.
Some of the paintings from the exhibition can be seen at http://www.rogercummiskey.com/gallery/rivergods.htm
"The Dead" is the last story in James Joyce's Dubliners and was made into a movie some years ago by John Huston. The setting for the story and the exhibition is number 15 Usher's Island, Dublin.
The exhibition continues through November and December 2004 and features the series "Pomes Penyeach" first published by Shakespeare & Co in Paris 1927.
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Tel/Fax: 353 (0)86 157 9546
info@jamesjoycehouse.com
'THE DEAD' AND 15 USHER'S ISLAND
It is because James Joyce set the short story The Dead here in No. 15 Usher's Island that we can claim the building to have one of the greatest literary addresses in the world. The literary pedigree is hard to beat. Most of the characters are based on people Joyce would have met there while visiting his aunts. We merit a further mention in Ulysses (Circe Chapter). And John Huston topped it all off with his own masterpiece and swansong.
As the 19th century slipped away Joyce's aunts', Mrs. Lyons and Mrs. Callanan and her daughter Mary Ellen lived on the upper floors of No. 15, tenants to a corn merchant Mr. Fagan (Mr. Fulham, the Corn Factor).
Members of the Joyce family, when they were old enough, celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6th) each year with a dinner at No. 15. Joyce's father would carve the goose and make festive speeches just as Gabriel does in the story. Joyce had fond memories of these parties. He describes one of the most memorable dinners in fiction along side a beautiful love story. Ernest Hemmingway described The Dead as quite simply the greatest short story every written.
The building itself has had a varied history. We have learned so much of this history by means of the oral tradition. Hardly a day goes by without someone dropping in to wish us well and share a story. Through this oral tradition we have learned the name of our ghost, about Parnell, about the connection with Finnegan's Wake, about Joyce in school in Belvedere, about Robert Emmet, about the blacksmiths who worked around the corner making pikes for Emmet's revolution and hooks for the kitchen ceiling! 15 Usher's Island had fallen into dereliction as Dublin's inner city imploded during the two hundred years since the collapse of Grattan's Parliament. Brendan Kilty fell in love with No. 15 at 11.15 pm on 16th June 1979. He knew then that one day he would restore the building. And so it was, 21 years later, in early 2000 he succeeded in acquiring the wreck of No. 15. He did so with three stated intentions. Firstly he wanted to restore the building back to its conditions as of 1904. Secondly he wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the dinner parties so beloved of Joyce. Thirdly he wanted to recreate the art of good conversation and see what might happen. He did and it does.