The Waking Dead with Patrick Callan

Join us at The James Joyce Centre for a special Bloomsday Festival launch of an exciting new work of scholarship by historian Patrick Callan on Sunday, June 15th at 7pm.

Death in Dublin During the Era of James Joyce’s Ulysses (2025, Routledge) focuses on the funeral of Paddy Dignam in James Joyce’s Ulysses, which serves as the pivotal event of the ‘Hades’ episode. This volume explores how Dignam’s interment in Glasnevin Cemetery allowed Joyce the freedom to consider the conventions, rituals and superstitions associated with death and burial in Dublin.

Integrating the words and characters of Ulysses with its figurative locale, the book looks at the presence of Dublin in Ulysses, and Ulysses in Dublin. It emphasises the highly visible public role assigned to death in Joyce’s world, while also appreciating how it is woven into the universe of Ulysses. The study examines the role of Glasnevin Cemetery – where the Joyce family plot was opened in 1880 and remained in use for eight decades – as well as the social and medical problems associated with life in Dublin, a city divided by class, status, wealth and health. Nineteen burials took place in Glasnevin on 16 June 1904, and the analysis of this group illuminates the role of undertakers and insurers, along with the importance of memorialisation.

This book is an important contribution to Joyce and Irish studies, as well as to international studies related to the treatment of the dead body and the development of garden cemeteries.

Author Patrick Callan will offer insights of his work and answer questions from the audience. The talk will be followed by music and readings to celebrate the eve of Bloomsday, June 16th.

Patrick Callan is Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. His work on Ulysses and the role of radio in Joyce’s work has appeared in the James Joyce Quarterly (2021), the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (2019), and the Dublin James Joyce Journal (2018–20).

The event is free but booking is essential. Doors open at 6.30pm.