The Tragic Story of Lucia Joyce – Schizophrenia & Half a Century Locked Away James Joyce’s daughter Lucia was a gifted dancer in 1920s Paris, until schizophrenia took her into psychiatric care for almost half a century. In 1929, Lucia Joyce danced in a silver fish-scale costume she had sewn herself, and the crowd at Bal Bullier booed the judges for not giving her the prize. Three years later, her mind began to break. Her father refused to accept that she was ill. He spent a fortune on doctors and clinics, and even took her to Carl Jung. Nothing could bring her back. This is one of the most tragic stories in literary history: a daughter left behind in wartime France, a family that stopped visiting, and a man who once broke her heart, Samuel Beckett, who kept coming to see her until the end. After her death, most of her letters were destroyed.
Undertold brings you the tragic stories of real people whose lives were told wrong, told halfway, or never told at all. Subscribe for the next story. Full Series: • Tragic Stories Timestamp: 00:00 The Dancer of Paris 07:40 The First Cracks 11:20 The Father Who Refused to Believe 16:46 Left Behind for Fifty Years 24:15 Silenced a Second Time Sources:
Carol Loeb Shloss, Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake (2003)
Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (Oxford University Press, revised edition 1982)
“Lucia Joyce’s Mental Illness in Finnegans Wake”, American Journal of Psychiatry (2012)
Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
• Tragic Stories Timestamp: 00:00 The Dancer of Paris 07:40 The First Cracks 11:20 The Father Who Refused to Believe 16:46 Left Behind for Fifty Years 24:15 Silenced a Second Time Sources:
