Nora Barnacle's House — Attraction in Galway

Discover with Clare as a special tour guide the house where Nora Barnacle lived. Admission 5€. 100% worth the price if you are into lit.

It really made my day when I popped in the front door of the house belonging to the woman who was bound to become the lifetime companion of an Irish rarity: James Joyce. Nora Barnacle lived in Galway for a few years and here she was supposed to have met the Michael Joyce mentions in The Dead. He is buried at the local cemetery of Rahoon, he was in love with Nora and died for her sake, as James makes up so beautifully in "The Dead". The funny thing is that Joyce met Nora in Dublin, while she was stepping out of the hotel where she was working as a chambermaid. This meeting is at the centre of the Irish history and literature as the place where they met is a crossroads of all the Irish must-read writers; the hotel was surrounded by Wilde’s father’s house. Beckett’s family’s offices and...

What an exquisite and unexpected delight! I love house museums and search for them whenever I travel as a portal into the past. We walked into the Nora Barnacle House and were greeted by Mary Gallagher, one of the sisters who bought the house many years ago to preserve and tell the story of Nora Barnacle, who was not only the longtime companion and then wife of James Joyce, but also a fascinating iconoclastic woman who charted her own course at a time when society constrained women and their choices. Mary favored us with a rich and layered history lesson and shared lots of memorabilia about Nora and Jim as we sat in the small single room of the home. We also visited the upstairs sleeping quarters and the walled “garden” behind the house. Don’t miss...

For Joyce readers and Nora admirers, maybe the smallest, maybe the best museum in Galway, if not in Ireland. You'll see ghosts in this beautifully curated and preserved, but not gussied up two room miracle of a spot. You can read about a 12-child family living in such a space, but until you stand in it, you don't really understand. It's where Nora grew up, where James Joyce visited to get the parent's approval (well after they were living together) and where now, a family has kept the spirit of live. Be charmed, be nice and be rewarded. Aces for the knowledgeable host, whose name I never caught, but many thanks for a...