Reclaiming Lucia Joyce

Dr Deirdre Mulrooney
 

Deirdre Mulrooney introduces Lucia Joyce, whom she has been reclaiming as an artist and significant figure in the hidden history of modern dance in twentieth-century Ireland — through her 2019 RTÉ Lyric FM feature radio documentary, her short dance film, and her 2024 limited edition publication Lucia Joyce: Full Capacity.

Deirdre will also share her 2026 short aerial dance film The Clouds are not Inaccessible, based on a little-known 1932 surrealist text by Lucia Joyce. Together with Bess Rowen, they ponder the connections and parallels between Lucia Joyce and Eugene O’Neill.

Dr Deirdre Mulrooney is an Irish author, filmmaker, theatre director, broadcaster and scholar. In addition to a number of books, dance films and other works, she has contributed about her own family’s unique adventures to Photo Album of the Irish: Canada, and is currently making a documentary entitled Turtle Island Family Album drawing on her family archive. She serves on the advisory board of Northern Attitudes Dance Company and of the Yeats International Summer School.