Nora Barnacle gets NCH song cycle for Bloomsday

I know Joycean scholars are still busy trying to unknot the convoluted nonsense of Finnegans Wake, but pending the result of their great endeavour I don’t mind declaring that the most exciting James Joyce news for ages has been that of a new song cyc

Shaun Davey, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Rita Connolly at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Picture: Feargal Ward
Shaun Davey, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Rita Connolly at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Picture: Feargal Ward

The songs – a collaboration between composer Shaun Davey, his wife singer Rita Connolly, and poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill – will appropriately have their world premiere in the National Concert Hall on June 16 – Bloomsday.

Nora Barnacle was the intriguingly attractive Galway girl who took young Jimmy’s fancy to such an extent that in 1904 he ...