The ''Ulysses'' broadcast occurred on
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' takes place in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his ...
1982
Events January
* January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).
* January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...
when the Irish state broadcaster,
RTÉ Radio
RTÉ Radio is a division of the Irish national broadcasting organisation Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Radio broadcasts four analogue channels and five digital channels nationwide.
Founded in January 1926 as 2RN, the first broadcaster in th ...
, transmitted an uninterrupted 30-hour dramatised radio performance, by 33 actors of the
RTÉ Players, of the entire text of
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
's epic 1922 novel, ''
Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
'', to commemorate the centenary of the author's birth (born 2 February 1882).
[''1982 Recordings''](_blank)
RTÉ. Retrieved: 2010-09-12. The broadcast was carried by live relay internationally and won a
Jacob's Broadcasting Award in recognition of its achievement.
The full 30-hour broadcast was repeated for the first time in 38 years on
RTÉ Radio 1 Extra
RTÉ Radio 1 Extra is a digital radio station produced by the Irish public-service broadcasting service Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).
History
Initially launched on 1 December 2008 as RTÉ Choice
RTÉ Choice was a digital radio stati ...
on 16 June 2020, beginning at 8 am. The decision to repeat the broadcast was influenced by the death of Joyce's grandson and literary estate executor,
Stephen Joyce, in January 2020 and by the quarantine introduced in Ireland to limit the spread of the
COVID-19 virus
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a p ...
.
The novel ''Ulysses'' contains about 265,000 words from a vocabulary of 30,030 words. This record-breaking and historic
live literary broadcast was originally released to the public, after the broadcast, as a recording on 20
audio cassettes
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
in 1982 and later digitally remastered on
CD in two formats: as a 32-CD
boxed set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
, and as a three-CD set of
MP3 audio files, released in 2004 (
OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
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Track listing (MP3 version)
Broadcast personnel (the RTÉ Players)
Narrators
RTÉ. Retrieved: 2010-09-12.
* Conor Farrington
* Peter Dix
* Brendan Cauldwell
Brendan Cauldwell (25 October 1922 – 12 January 2006) was an Irish radio, film and television actor.
Early life and education
Cauldwell was born in Fairview, Dublin. He was educated at O'Connell's Irish Christian Brothers School and went on ...
* Aiden Grennell
* Tomas Studley
* Deirdre O'Meara
Cast
* Leopold Bloom
Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel ''Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in Homer's epic poe ...
– Ronnie Walsh
* Molly Bloom
Molly Bloom is a fictional character in the 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' by James Joyce. The wife of main character Leopold Bloom, she roughly corresponds to Penelope in the ''Odyssey''. The major difference between Molly and Penelope is that while P ...
– Pegg Monahan
* Stephen Dedalus
Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographic novel of artistic existence ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' (1916) and an important character in Joyce' ...
– Patrick Dawson
* Buck Mulligan
Malachi Roland St. John "Buck" Mulligan is a fictional character in James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. He appears most prominently in episode 1 ''(Telemachus)'', and is the subject of the novel's famous first sentence:
"Stately, plump Buck ...
– Gerry McArdle
* Mr. Deasy – Brendan Cauldwell
* Myles Crawford – Seamus Forde
* Bantam Lyons – Jim Reid
* Simon Dedalus
This is a list of characters from '' Ulysses'' by James Joyce.
Principal characters
* Leopold Bloom is a protagonist and hero in Joyce's '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and i ...
– Eamon Keane
Eamonn Patrick Keane (born Edmund Keane; 30 March 1925 – 7 January 1990) was an Irish actor.
Keane was born in Listowel, County Kerry and was a brother of the playwright, John B. Keane. He was a member of the Radio Éireann Players and appea ...
* Haines – Laurence Foster
* Miss Douce – Colette Proctor
* Miss Kennedy – Barbara McCaughey
* Nosy Flynn – Gerald Fitzmahony
* Ben Dollard – Breandán Ó Dúill
* Ned Lambert – Denis Staunton
* W.B. Murphy – Liam O'Callaghan
* Cyril Sargent – Brendan Conroy
* Colm – Colm Hefferon
* Zoe Higgins – Marcella O'Riordan
* Bella Cohen – Eileen Colgan
Eileen Colgan Simpson (2 January 1934 – 10 March 2014) was an Irish theatre, television and film actress. She was best known for her recurring role as Esther Roche on the RTÉ One soap opera, ''Fair City''. She also appeared in the RTÉ televis ...
* John Henry Menton – Eoin White
* The Nymph – Cathryn Brennan
* Virag – Christopher Casson
Christopher T. Casson (20 March 1912 – 9 July 1996) was an English-born actor who became a citizen of Ireland in 1946. His work included stage, screen, radio and television roles. His portrayal of a Church of Ireland canon in the long-runni ...
* Old Gummy Granny – Neasa Ní Annracháin
Neasa Ní Annracháin (; 17 October 1922 – 18 December 2014) was an Irish actress known for her work on Irish radio.
Early life
Ní Annracháin was born on 17 October 1922 to farmer and author Peadar Ó hAnnracháin from Scibbereen, and his w ...
* Stephen's Mother – Joan Plunkett
* Mrs. Yelverton-Barry – Daphne Carroll
* Cissy Caffrey – Kate Minogue
* Alf Bergin – Joe Taylor
* The Gaffer – Ivan Hanly
Production personnel
* Text Consultant – Roland McHugh
* Sound Supervision – Marcus Mac Donald
* Executive Producer – Micheál Ó hAodha
* Director – William Styles
References
External links
Photograph of actors at recording
''Ulysses''
audiobook: the entire recording
The entire recording in 18 parts
at RTÉ Culture
{{James Joyce
Literature albums by Irish artists
Audiobooks by title or series
Live spoken word albums
Bloomsday
RTÉ Radio
Ulysses (novel)
Spoken word albums by Irish artists
1980s spoken word albums