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Nora Barnacle (March 1884 – April 10, 1951) was the lover, companion, inspiration, and eventual...

Nora Barnacle (March 1884 – April 10, 1951) was the lover, companion, inspiration, and eventual wife of author James Joyce. Barnacle was born in the town of Galway, Ireland, but the day of her birth is uncertain. Depending on the source, it varies between the 21st and the 24th of March 1884. Her father Thomas Barnacle, a baker in Connemara, was an illiterate man who was 38 years old when Nora was born. Her mother, Annie Honoria Healy, was 28 and worked as dressmaker. Between 1886 and 1889, Nora was sent to live with her maternal grandmother, Catherine Mortimer Healy. During these years, she started her studies at a convent and, in 1891, graduated from a national school achieving a good schooling for the time. In 1896, Nora completed her schooling and began to work as a porteress and laundress. In the same year, her mother threw her father out for drinking and the couple separated. Nora went to live with her mother and her uncle, Tom Healy, at No.4 Bowling Green, Galway City. In 1896, Nora fell in love with a teenager named Michael Feeney, who died soon after of typhoid and pneumonia. In a dramatic but unrelated coincidence, another boy loved by Nora, Michael Bodkin, died in 1900,