Criminal Conversation

A popular radio personality writes and broadcasts ghost stories over the air. He receives a strange call warning him not to finish his latest story, which is about a child who dies assisting in a magician's show.

This short documentary draws on the photographs of Robert French from the William Lawrence Collection held in the National Library. The photos illustrate the Dublin of 1904 which served as a backdrop to James Joyce’s Ulysses. The film traces Joyce’s childhood and adolescence, his meeting with Nora Barnacle on June 10th, 1904, and the highways and byways which Leopold Bloom wandered through on June 16th, 1904. The music in the film references some of Joyce’s favourite songs, many of which appear in Ulysses.

Rigid nationalist Reilly's frustration at the last remains of British rule draws him to the Rockingham Shoot, where a violent incident occurs.