Friday, August 22, 2003

Split Pea Press, located in Edinburgh Scotland, was
established in 1987. They have a number of inter-
esting publications including a poster which reproduces
the Evening Telegraph of June 16, 1904 (something I
plan to purchase on my next payday).

Here’s an excerpt from their website telling how they
came up with the idea for the poster:

“On Friday October 5, 1967, Timothy Finnegan (55), a
labourer of 5 Walkin Street, was working on the demolition
of a row of Dublin houses in Eccles Street to make way
for a new hospital extension when he discovered a cache
of old newspapers among the bricks and mortar. A lover
of the turf he decided to take them home to peruse the
old sports pages over a pipe while waiting for his supper.
Sadly he died the next day in an accident at work. It was
after an encounter with his son, Michael, in The Ship Tavern,
Lower Abbey Street, that Mr Ian Gunn, a visiting scholar
and gentleman from Scotland asked if he might see the
papers which the son had kept for sentimental reasons.
Gunn (72) of Edinburgh recognised immediately that among
this pile of papers was the original copy of the Evening
Telegraph for June 16, 1904, owned by one of Dublin's most
famous literary characters, Leopold Bloom.

On return to Scotland Mr Gunn showed the documents to
Mr Alistair McCleery (17) of the Split Pea Press in Edin-
burgh and together they decided on its immediate repro-
duction as a poster together with a guide to the refer-
ences to this newspaper in the account by James Joyce
in his Ulysses.”

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