A new Off-Broadway musical seeks to tell the story of the passionate, tumultuous, and prolific relationship between James Joyce and Nora Barnacle through Nora’s perspective of their nearly 40-year romance. We sat down with Whitney Bashor, who plays Nora, as well as some of the crew, to see how the show came together and how the story of Nora and Joyce might resonate with contemporary women.
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Nora Barnacle is one of the most famous women in the history of Irish literature, not least because her relationship with James Joyce was the genesis of Ulysses. The novel is set on June 16, 1904, supposedly the day that Joyce and Nora first went on a “date,” and now celebrated as Bloomsday, named for the novel’s main character, Leopold Bloom. But Nora was anything but a passive muse to Joyce’s literary talent, as Himself and Nora makes clear.
Hemochromatosis (he-moe-krome-uh-TOE-sis)
Hereditary hemochromatosis is a disease caused by a recessive genetic mutation that makes the body absorb too much iron, resulting in excess amounts being deposited in vital organs, most commonly the liver, heart, and pancreas. Luckily, only a small number of people with the genetic mutation develop serious problems, but even so, excess iron can poison those organs, effectively “rusting” them, resulting in cancer, heart disease, diabetes, cirrhosis, and other life-threatening diseases.
Since the discovery of the mutation in 1996, hemochromatosis has been called the “Celtic Curse,” “Irish Illness,” “Scottish Sickness,” and the “British Gene” for good reasons. Research suggests that the mutation occurred in Ireland to conserve iron in the bodies of the Celts who lacked an iron-rich diet. Now that we have iron-heavy foods readily accessible, the evolutionary development has become a disease that disproportionately afflicts
A group of over 400 current and former G.A.A. players held a solidarity sleep-out in December to draw attention to Ireland’s homelessness crisis, raising more than $150,000 in the process. The sleep-out took place in 13 towns and cities throughout Ireland and abroad, including Dublin, Boston, New York, Quebec City, Wexford, Galway, and Cork. According to Focus Ireland, Ireland has seen a 24 percent increase in homelessness in the past year and has the highest child homelessness rate in Europe.
“As G.A.A. intercounty players, many of us have been fortunate in our lives,” Dublin Gaelic football player Eamonn Fennell, who participated in the sleep-out at the Dublin General Post Office, said. “The G.A.A. is based upon communities and support. With the support of the communities across Ireland, we can make a real change.” ♦