Nora Barnacle

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Nora Barnacle (March 1884 – April 10, 1951) was the lover, companion, inspiration, and — eventually —wife of author James Joyce.

She was born in Connemara, Galway, Ireland, but the day of her birth is uncertain. Depending on the source, it varies between the 21st to the 24th of March, 1884. Her father Thomas, a baker in Connemara, was an illiterate man who was 38 years old when Nora was born. Her mother, Annie Honoraria Healy, was 28 and worked as dressmaker.

Between 1886 and 1889, Nora was sent to live with her maternal grandmother. During these years, she started her studies at a convent and, in 1891, graduated from a national school. In 1896, Nora completed her schooling and began to work as a porteress and laundress. In the same year, her mother threw her father out for drinking and the couple separated. Nora went to live with her mother and her uncle, Tom Healy, in Bowling Green street.

In 1896, Nora fell in love with a teenager named Michael Feeney, who died soon after of typhoid and pneumonia. In a dramatic but unrelated coincidence, another boy loved by Nora died in 1900, garnering her the name of "man-killer" from her friends. After being discovered in a love affair with a Protestant, Willie Mulvagh, in 1903, she was sent away by her uncle. She went to Dublin where she worked as chambermaid at Finn's Hotel.

While in Dublin, she met Joyce on June 10, 1904, but it was not until June 16, 1904 that they had their first romantic liaison. This date would later be chosen as the setting for Joyce's novel Ulysses, and has come to be known and celebrated around the world as Bloomsday.

The nature of the initial meeting between Nora Barnacle and James Joyce remains controversial, as some claim that Nora instigated relations of a sexual nature, whereas others maintain that this first meeting was chaste. It is unlikely that any one camp will ever have the final say in this debate, and Joyce's erotic correspondence to Nora has muddied the story somewhat.

In any event, the 1904 rendezvous began a long relationship that lasted till Joyce died, and eventually led to marriage, though only in 1931 (some say to appease Joyce's dying father).

Nora and James' relationship was very complex. They had different personalities, tastes and cultural interests. At the beginning they loved each other passionately and deeply, as witnessed by the sensual epistolary correspondence between the two. James seems to have admired and trusted her totally. Nora was well-disposed towards James, and seems to have tried to accommodate him. In anticipation of his move to Paris, Nora began studying French. Nora used to cook English puddings at Joyce's request and acquiesced in following him during his travels.

In 1904, Nora and James left Ireland for continental Europe, and in the following year they set up house in Trieste, Italy. On June 27, 1905, Nora Barnacle gave birth to a son, Giorgio, and later to a daughter, Lucia, in July 26, 1907. A miscarriage in 1908 coincided with the beginning of a series of difficulties for Nora, which placed strain on her relationship with Joyce and made it increasingly conflictual. Although she remained by his side, she complained both about his personal qualities and his writings to her sister Katleen.

In these letters to her sister, she depicts her husband as a weak man and a neurotic artist. She accuses Joyce of ruining her life and that of their children. She says he drinks too much and wastes too much money. As for his literary activity, she laments the fact that his writings are obscure and lacking in sense. She hates attending his meetings with other artists and admits she would have preferred him had he been a musician rather than a writer.

Another challenge to the couple's relationship was posed by Lucia's mental disease. Nora believed hospitalization was required, but James was against it. Lucia's parents brought in many specialists and only in 1936 was she interned in a clinic. There, she was often visited by her father, but not her mother; Nora would refuse to see her daughter ever again.

Notwithstanding all the accusations and criticisms she levelled against Joyce, Nora married him in 1931. After living through Joyce's death in Zurich in 1941, Nora decided to remain there. She died in Zurich of uremic poisoning in 1951, aged 65.

In 1988, Nora Barnacle was the subject of a feminist biography by Brenda Maddox, Nora. This in turn was made into a film in 1999, starring Susan Lynch and Ewan McGregor.

In 2004, an erotic letter from Joyce to Barnacle sold at Sotheby's for $445,000 USD (a record amount for a modern-day letter at auction).

[edit] Trivia

Joyce's father remarked, on learning Nora's surname, "She'll stick with him."