Walking With the Dead

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Emma Harding

Colm Toibin

Stephen Rea

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BBC Radio 4 Extra - Walking With the Dead

Writer Colm Tóibín explores the Dublin locations haunted by James Joyce's Dubliners.

Writer Colm Tóibín explores the Dublin locations haunted by James Joyce's Dubliners. With Anne Enright. From 2014.

James Joyce's revolutionary short story collection, Dubliners, was first published in 1914. 

Made to mark the centenary of its publication, author Colm Tóibín explores some of the Dublin locations haunted by Joyce's characters in those stories 

He talks to contemporary writers Anne Enright and John Banville about the influence of Dubliners on their own work.

These 15 stories were written when Ireland was ablaze with converging and contradictory ideas about identity, history and culture. And the book itself had a protracted and anguished publication history. Between 1905, when Joyce first sent a manuscript to a publisher, and June 1914, when the book was finally published, Joyce's manuscript was rejected 18 times, because of its sexual content and references to real people.

Colm is a passionate guide to Joyce's stories and in his company, we visit many of the buildings and locations featured in the stories, such as Mulligans pub, St Francis Xavier church and 15 Ushers Island - the house that features in the last story, 'The Dead'. 

He talks to writers, academics and Dubliners themselves about the continuing power and resonance of these stories.
 
Contributors include: 

Terence Brown
Anne Fogarty
Jonathan Creasy
Brendan Kilty 
Caroline Elbay   

Extracts from the stories are read by Stephen Rea.

The songs from Dubliners are performed by Noel O'Grady, Kevin McDermott & Ralph Richey, Marie Shannon and Susan Kilty.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2014.

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