Posted 06 January 2014
Online journey into final story of Joyce's Dubliners – "The Dead"
A new app dedicated to “The Dead” brings the closing story of Joyce’s “Dubliners” to a new generation of readers and scholars.
Published a century ago (1914) and regarded by many critics as the greatest short story of the twentieth century, “The Dead” begins with a party in Ushers Island on 06 January; the feast of the Epiphany and the last night of Christmas.
At an annual dinner party held by Kate and Julia Morkan at number 15 Ushers Island, Gabriel Conroy and his wife Greta enjoy the company, dancing and music. Then, as they are about to leave, Greta hears the folksong, The Lass of Aughrim sung plaintively by another guest, she remembers the young man who once loved her and sang to her on another snowy night. Later that evening back in their hotel Gabriel looks out the window at the snow falling and realises his marriage is not all that he had imagined it to be.
The new app produced by the UCD Humanities Institute, University College Dublin, in association with Vermillion Design and Athena Media, includes the full story read by actor Barry McGovern, rare and unseen images of Dublin at the time, architectural images and drawings describing the house and the architecture of the era, a video performance of The Lass of Aughrim filmed in the house on Usher's Island, and podcast commentaries by Catriona Crowe, Prof Mary Daly, Prof Anne Fogarty, Prof Gerardine Meaney and Prof Harry White about Joyce, Dubliners, and the Dublin of the time.
“This new app shows the clear potential for collaboration between cultural heritage and new technology to create new opportunities for arts, scholarship, media and design in Ireland and globally,” said Prof Gerardine Meaney, UCD Humanities Institute.
The app is the final output of several UCD Humanities Institute and John Hume Global Irish Institute projects funded under the competitive HEA Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), which combined private philanthropic and public funding. It is available to download for free from the Apple App Store.
James Joyce is perhaps the best known of all University College Dublin graduates – he completed his Bachelor of Arts at the university in 1902.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
