BEGINNERS GUIDE TO OPERA
DRESSING UP
OPERA LINKS
GETTING STARTED
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WHAT'S IN A NAME
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Anna Livia is the name given to the personification of the River Liffey which flows through Dublin City. It is also the name of the washer woman in the Anna Livia Plurabelle chapter of Finnegan's Wake written by James Joyce in 1939.
This character is interchangeable between a heroine and a river which enters the sea as it flows through Dublin. The image is from one of a series of River Gods commissioned by famous architect James Gandon (1743 -1823) from Edward Smith, a virtually unknown sculptor who worked on them for the Custom House in Dublin.
The 'Heads of the River' were fourteen in number and were called after fourteen different rivers in Ireland. It is interesting
to note that the only river deemed to be female is the Liffey herself. |