“Flowers of Sleep”: Bringing Paddy Dignam from Sandymount to Glasnevin

The funeral of Paddy Dignam in James Joyce’s Ulysses serves as the pivotal event of the ‘Hades’ episode. Dignam’s funeral cavalcade leaves his home in Sandymount at 11 a.m. on 16 June 1904, taking him across the city to Glasnevin Cemetery. His death and interment allowed Joyce the freedom to consider many of the conventions, rituals and superstitions associated with death and burial in Dublin. Drawing on Ulysses as well as contemporary sources, this talk by Dr. Patrick Callan will look at a variety of aspects relating to the domestic and public treatment of the dead body in Dublin, including the practice of the wake, and the traditional offerings of flowers.

Dr. Callan is a Dublin historian and Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. His book Death in Dublin during the Era of James Joyce’s Ulysses will be published by Routledge.

The event is free but booking is essential. The talk is part of the James Joyce Centre Lecture Series.