Two programmes are available on Bloomsday (June 16th) on RTÉ Radio 1!
Firstly, from 8 am, our digital sister station RTÉ Radio 1 Extra is broadcasting the ‘annual’ twenty nine and three quarter hour marathon of the classic 1982 RTÉ Complete Recording of James Joyce’s Ulysses. The broadcast concludes at lunchtime on Monday – but if you don’t want to stay up all night you can stream Ulysses and other Joycean delights (Dubliners, Exiles, etc.) at The James Joyce Collection on the Drama On One website.
Secondly, The Drama On One offering at 8 pm on Bloomsday is Excuse me, can you tell me where Paddy Dignam is buried? We’re in the Hibernian Necropolis meeting the folk who gather every June 16th in The Dead Centre of Dublin – Glasnevin Cemetery – the location for Episode 6 of Ulysses – Hades or Paddy Dignam’s funeral. There are over 200 characters mentioned in Ulysses buried in Glasnevin. Excuse me, can you tell me where Paddy Dignam is buried? features the voices of Daniel Eglington Carey (tour guide) and Conor Dodd (resident historian) from The Dublin Cemeteries Trust and also archive recordings of Fritz Senn (The Zürich James Joyce Foundation) and the late Gerry O’Flaherty (a founder member of the James Joyce Institute of Ireland). The excerpt of the reenactment of Paddy Dignam’s funeral was performed by the JoyceStagers (Peter Prior, Louis O’Byrne, Paul Maher, Tim Casey, Ian Blackmore and Val O’Donnell).
Bloomsday 2024 marks the 120th anniversary of the day when James Joyce and Nora Barnacle first walked out together in 1904. It’s also 70 years since Patrick Kavanagh, Brian Ó Nualláin (aka Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen), Anthony Cronin, A.J. (Con) Leventhal, John Ryan and Tom Joyce set out in horse drawn cabs to re enact Episode 6 of Ulysses, ‘Hades’ or Paddy Dignam’s funeral, back in 1954. They didn’t quite make it. They were laid siege to by General Thirst!
