“MY DEAR little runaway Nora . . .” Almost a century after one Mr Joyce opened a love letter to his spouse with these words, the full text was recited aloud yesterday in the very same kitchen in Galway.
The occasion was the annual Bloomsday gathering at Nora Barnacle’s family home in 4 Bowling Green, where Irish and international visitors were invited to take tea, home-based cake and biscuits, and read their favourite passage by Joyce. “James Joyce came here to Galway in 1909 with his four-year-old son Giorgio, and he was as apprehensive as any man would be about meeting his mother-in-law,” curator Franchine Mulrooney explained, before her recitation. “Mrs Barnacle greeted him at the half door with a roaring fire and open arms . . . and then he sat down to tell his wife about it, as she was away in Trieste with their baby daughter Lucia.”
For Italian couple Cristina and Luca Gronchi, it was a moving experience. “We are just about to celebrate our third wedding anniversary in two days, and we really wanted to mark Bloomsday,” Cristina said.“We were trying to get back to Dublin in time and then heard about this event in Galway – perfect!”
Sculptor John Behan, Prof Brian Arkins of NUI Galway and Sheila O’Donnellan of the Lady Gregory autumn school were among the many participants who squeezed into the two-roomed house yesterday, renovated and maintained by sisters Galway sisters Sheila and Mary Gallagher.
