Walsh Whiskey is to release a limited-edition collector’s bottling of its super-premium Writers’ Tears – Copper Pot expression to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the 1922 publication of James Joyce’s great novel, Ulysses. The design of the bottling features a well-known location and chapter from the book.
Writers’ Tears will undertake a year-long programme of events, in-person and online, where patrons of the Irish whiskey can join with others in celebrating and gaining insights into what many consider to be the greatest novel of the 20th century.
The first event of the ‘Writers’ Tears Ulysses Centenary Programme’ will take place on the anniversary of Ulysses’ first publication on Wednesday, 2 February. There will be a free 7pm (Irish time) Facebook Live reading from Writers’ Tears first edition copy of Ulysses at Sweny’s Pharmacy, Lincoln Place in Dublin (Sweny’s Pharmacy, Lincoln Place, Dublin | Facebook).
Following the author’s own visit to the pharmacy in 1904, Sweny’s features prominently in episode five of Ulysses, titled ‘The Lotus Eaters’. The first edition copy to be used in the Sweny’s celebratory reading is No. 1,479 of 2,000 published in 1922 by Egoist Press. It is the personal copy of Writers’ Tears creator, and the Co-Founder of Walsh Whiskey, Bernard Walsh.
Walsh, said: “Ulysses is a global treasure, not just a national one, and we invite everyone to explore and enjoy it, page by page, with us. You don’t have to read all of it, let alone understand it, but by engaging with it in different ways it will open up and reveal itself to you – just like a good whiskey.”
The Writers’ Tears Ulysses Centenary Programme includes:
- The release of a special, limited edition, collector’s bottling of Writers’ Tears – Copper Pot.
- Viewings of and readings from a first edition copy of Ulysses (No. 1,479 of 2,000 published in 1922 by Egoist Press) throughout the year.
- Live and online events in association with Sweny’s Pharmacy of Lincoln Place, Dublin. Writers’ Tears is a supporter of Sweny’s and its programme of celebrating Irish literary greats, since 2019.
- Writers’ Tears is supporting a short film and pilot for a series titled Remarkable Women: The Tale Behind Ulysses about the six women who supported James Joyce so he could write and publish Ulysses.
- Writers’ Tears is supporting the international release of a hybrid documentary, also about the women behind the publication of Joyce’s masterpiece, being produced in the United States titled ‘Left Bank: The Film’.
- Support of Centenary Bloomsday 2022 celebrations in Ireland, France and the USA.
- Support of the Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas, 2022.
- Competitions associated with the centenary of Ulysses through Writers’ Tears online channels – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and walshwhiskey.com
First created by Bernard Walsh in 2009, Writers’ Tears comprises a range of eight expressions of super-premium, triple-distilled Irish whiskeys, inspired by the literary greats that defined Irish culture in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The range includes four core (Copper Pot, Double Oak, Single Pot Still & Red Head) and four limited-edition expressions. Three of the limited-edition expressions in the range are under the Writers’ Tears Copper Pot line and feature rare cask finishes – Ice Wine, Marsala and Mizunara. The fourth limited-edition expression is a Cask Strength vintage, produced annually.
Not only will I enjoy a great dram of whiskey with a fine man of business and Ireland, but I get to read the words of one of the greatest writers to inhabit this planet. And become a Freeman of Sweny’s. I can tell you that when I read Bernard’s note, with just a subtle shift of apostrophe, it produced a different blend of Writer’s Tears. |
