Bernie Goldbach in Kilkenny. Image from Amazon
Many morning radio shows today recall for listeners what happened exactly 100 years ago today--a Galway girl gave a Dublin boy a handjob on Dollymount Strand. In Ulysses, the main character, Leopold Bloom, sets out on an epic walk around Dublin on the 16th of June, 1904. Dervala Hanley picks up the story. "It was their first date, and the grateful boy later turned the day into a secular feast by setting Ulysses on the 16th of June, 1904. It’s a fine thing to celebrate: carnal delight, first love, and a gift that augured a long and loving marriage. His Nora Barnacle turned out to be as loyal as her name, and I have extra fondness for a man whose love and art were real enough to hold as his muse an earthy wife instead of a goddess."
Dublin celebrations began with a breakfast of food in keeping with Bloom's love of "the inner organs of beasts and fowls" as described at the start of the book. It's definitely best experienced in the pulp although there's an online Ulysses available as well. I will never forget standing in the Schoolhouse Pub in Dublin, reading the censor's letters that banned the sale of Ulysses in Ireland and the United States. Similar legal constraints exist today. Joyce published his novel in 1922 which meant it fell into public domain in the UK in 1992. If you had a public performance that you can document between 1992 and 1996, you're free to continue. However, the Ulysses copyright was "pulled back" in 1996 and the book will remain in copyright in the EU until the end of 2011. Under US law, copyright on Ulysses may continue until 2032 in the US. Even though the Irish copyright on Joyce's works expired on 31 December 1991 (50 years after his death), EU regulations revived copyright from July 1995 when it extended the lifetime of copyright to 70 years.
Evidence of the moment. Google offers more than 60 references to the beach scene.
Neil Smith -- "Cheat's guide to Joyce's Ulysses"
John Crowley -- "Dublin's celebrations overshadowed by Ulysses copyright row"
Botheration -- "Ulysses one page a day"
