James Joyce's works abound in references to popular culture. They depict such works as part of the very fabric of modern consciousness. Frequently, Joyce deploys allusions to popular entertainment as a means of underlining the debasement and vulgarity of contemporary existence. But also crucially, in the manner of Walter Benjamin, he depicts popular culture as a site of resistance and the very basis by which his characters may contest the enervating effects of capitalism and of political imperialisms.

Herbert Gorman to Constantine Curran : looking for material for biography of Joyce, particularly his time in University.

Typescript of Joyce's version of 'Molly Brannigan'.

James Joyce to Constantine Curran : will call on Curran ...'Suis dans un trou sanguinaire'.

James Joyce to Constantine Curran : his bruised condition [after a fight?]; lists his injuries; encloses a novel for Curran; his writing; singing; poverty.

Stanislaus Joyce to Constantine Curran : Joyce unable to reply to Curran's letter personally as he has been ill with rheumatic fever and inflammation of the eyes. He has improved somewhat now.

Paul Léon to Constantine Curran : list enclosed of songs Joyce wants; also wants another called, as far as Léon can decipher it, 'The soldier's song'; meeting in Paris; Joyce's address in Switzerland.

Sylvia Beach to Constantine Curran : encloses copy of Mr. Joyce's version of 'Molly Brannigan'.

James O'Brien to Constantine Curran : Curran's broadcast on Joyce; remembers Joyce at evenings at the Sheehys' – charades and singing; recalls Joyce's pamphlet and subsequent progress.

Card to Dr. Kiernan, Radio Eireann : congratulations for broadcast on Joyce.

James Joyce to Constantine Curran : asking Curran to 'communicate the facts narrated in my enclosed statement to the press'.

Curran's compliments card, inscribed on verso by Joyce.

Richard Ellmann to Constantine Curran : returning photograph which Curran lent for reproduction in Ellmann's book.

Sylvia Beach to Constantine Curran : letter reminding Curran to send her Mr Joyce's article in St. Stephen's.

Paul Léon to Constantine Curran : Joyce wants first two numbers of Dublin Historical Record; Léon wants Irish Times issue with 'extraordinary note on Mr. Joyce connected with Cardinal Newman'.

Donagh MacDonagh to Constantine Curran : letter to Constantine P. Curran asking for support and help with publicity to purchase and restore the Martello Tower at Sandycove to serve as a Joyce Museum.

Paul Léon to Count O'Kelly : 19 envelopes 'all private and business correspondence which I have exchanged during the last ten years with Mr James Joyce...to be donated to' NLI. Access not permitted until 50 years after Mr. Joyce's death. Carbon copy of letter from Paul Léon to Count [Gerald] O'Kelly, Minister ad. Int. of Eire, Legation d'Eire, 8 Place Vendome, Paris. Cur L 303b: ms 'copy made from typed notes accompanying the two boxes containing 19 envelopes... C.P.C.'

James O'Brien to Constantine Curran : Curran's tribute to Joyce in Irish Times; Joyce's singing; The Day of the Rabblement; Joyce's moral courage; was Joyce reconciled to the church before he died?

Compliments card from James Joyce, with ms.

Paul Léon to Constantine Curran : Joyce would like to have a bench erected on Whitworth Road; bench type; background reasons; anonymity.

Bernard Gheerbrant to Constantine Curran : thanks for Day of the Rabblement; thanks for details about documents, which will be included in catalogue.

James Joyce to Constantine Curran : Joyce says he is "in double trouble, mental & material". Asks Curran to meet him in Bewley's smoke-room the following day.

Paul Léon to Constantine Curran : about the bench on Whitworth Road.

Eugene Sheehy to Constantine Curran : answers questions about courthouses in Monaghan, Cavan & Leitrim; memories of Joyce's acting in charades, also in plays put on in the Antient Concert Rooms.

A selection of audio interviews, podcasts derived from the interviews, transcriptions from the recordings and contextual material (held in UCD repositories and elsewhere) in relation to James Joyce's short story "The Dead".

[Photograph of James Joyce with another man, standing in a field, with a cottage in the background.]

Stanislaus Joyce to Constantine Curran : the truth behind the burning of the printed sheets of Dubliners (Falconer and Roberts); overt and covert censorship in Ireland; Vigilance Committee; recent fruitless attempts to buy Ulysses in Dublin versus its availability in Trieste; enquires whether there was a Crown Solicitor's Office in Dublin Castle and whether Cosgrave is still alive.

In this episode Declan Kiberd reads the closing chapter of his latest book Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Living published by Faber and Faber. Kiberd shows that Ulysses, far from being the epitome of elitism, was always intended as a book for the common people. It was rooted in their experience and offers a humane vision of a decent life under the dreadful pressures of the modern world. Leopold Bloom, the book’s hero, shows the young Stephen Dedalus how he can grow and mature as an artist and as a tolerant, adult human being. Bloom has learned to live with contradictions, with anxiety and sexual jealousy, and with the rudeness and racism of the people he encounters in the streets of Dublin. Apparently banal, he embodies an intensely ordinary kind of wisdom, and in this way offers us a model for living well.

Paul Léon to Constantine Curran : bouquets for actresses in Exiles, please; signed cards to follow.

Paul Léon to Constantine Curran : cards (for actresses).

[Transcript of Interview with Professor Harry White]

[Transcript of Interview with Professor Declan Kiberd]

[Transcript of Interview with Professor Kevin Whelan]

[Transcript of Interview with Professor Anne Fogarty]

Joyce described The Dead as a ghost story. The ghost of Michael Furey, who as Gretta says ‘died for me’ haunts the final scenes. But the story also echoes with the ghosts of Irish history and politics. Professor Kevin Whelan peels back the layers and references from the Battle of the Boyne, the 1798 rebellion, O’Connell’s Catholic Emancipation, Parnell’s Home Rule and the tension in early 20th Century Ireland between the emerging Gaelic Nationalist movement and the Catholic middle classes. Social historian Mary Daly places the story in its contemporary politics and illuminates what is going on behind the dance scene between Gabriel and Molly Ivors when her final retort is ‘West Briton’. We look at the physical landscape of the story and the map it draws from the Wellington Monument to the O’Connell statue and the tensions between east and west both for the characters and the country. What is Joyce telling us? The past is ever present in The Dead and the party itself takes on a wake like quality not just for a marriage but for a city as well. Dr Luca Crispi, working on the Joyce papers at the National Library, shows how the manuscripts illuminate how Joyce wrote.

At the end of the night we leave 15 Usher’s Island and follow Gabriel and Gretta Conroy’s journey up river and down O’Connell St (then Sackville Street) to the Gresham Hotel. With Professor Anne Fogarty we re-visit the Gresham Hotel and Gabriel’s own moment of self-revelation. Gerardine Meaney and Declan Kiberd explore the story’s love stories and how they relate to Joyce and his own life’s love, Nora Barnacle. Love and loss are intertwined in the personal epiphanies in The Dead and through the archives we look at what was happening in Joyce’s own life with the death of his mother May and his family’s decline into poverty. Declan Kiberd, Gerardine Meaney, Kevin Whelan and Anne Fogarty explore the story’s ending and that final scene of a snow covered Ireland. Is it one of despair or hope?

The Dead is rich in music from Italian opera to popular folk songs. Music and song is the soundtrack to the dinner party while the conversation around the table shares stories of Enrico Caruso and the music halls of the city. The story’s epiphany hangs on a memory provoked by a song ‘The Lass of Aughrim’. Professor Harry White unpacks the power of music in Joyce’s narrative and we discover how central a force music and song was in the author’s life. Professor White sees the story itself as an operatic composition. We visit the National Library to see sheet music of the day and from the UCD folklore collection we hear Elizabeth Cronin’s version of ‘The Lass of Aughrim’ which gives us a sense of how the song sounded in 1904. Singer and musician Noel O’Grady, who performs the music of Joyce, shares his rendition of ‘The Lass of Aughrim’ as he plays the part of Bartell D’Arcy and re-creates that moment which froze Gretta on the stairs of 15 Usher’s Island.

James Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead’ is set in the heart of Dublin City on January 6th 1904. As part of our audio podcast series Barry McGovern takes a walk through the city of ‘The Dead’ and explores the landscape which frames the story from 15 Usher’s Island to the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street. What remains of Joyce’s Dublin today and what inspired his locations? ‘The Dead’ brings us on a journey from the quays on the River Liffey looking towards the Phoenix Park and references a city which can still be found today. Have a look at our slideshow of photographs from the National Library collections and from Dublin today to get a sense of the city of ‘The Dead’.

[Transcript of Interview with Professor Gerardine Meaney]

TS Eliot described it as one of the greatest short stories ever written. James Joyce finished the final story in his collection Dubliners, The Dead, in Trieste 1907. This story of the Misses Morkan’s annual gathering of family, friends and music students is framed by the elderly sisters’ nephew Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta and a personal epiphany triggered by the fragment of a song. Professors Declan Kiberd, Anne Fogarty and Gerardine Meaney help us unpack the story and find out why it has such resonance and power.

[Transcript of Interview with Catriona Crowe]

[Transcript of Interview with Dr Luca Crispi]

We start at 15 Usher’s Island, the house at the centre of the Misses Morkan’s Epiphany dinner party on January 6th 1904. Set in a Dublin of 300,000 souls, on a bitter cold night, we are looking out across the river to the west to the Phoenix Park and to the east towards the Four Courts. As the story begins, Lily, the over-worked housemaid, opens the door. What does the story tell us about Dublin in 1904? Professor Mary Daly helps us step back in time while Professor Kevin Whelan connects The Dead to Dublin’s history, geography and landscape. What do the archives hold and tell us about not just Joyce’s Dublin but also about his own life story? We visit the National Archives and the census records of 1901 with Catriona Crowe while Katherine McSharry opens the National Library collection. Architect Sean O’Laoire helps us imagine Joyce’s Dublin and shares the story of the house itself 15 Usher’s Island.

[Transcript of Interview with Professor Mary E. Daly]

[Transcript of Interview with Sean O Laoire]

[Transcript of Interview with Katherine McSharry]

[Transcript of Interview with Noel O Grady]

Collection of photographs compiled by Constantine Peter Curran, 1880-1972.