Of the stories Joyce collected in DUBLINERS, “The Dead” was the last in order of composition. Joyce began to plan the story during his brief interlude in Rome in 1906, but he did not begin to write this modern parable of the rivalry between the living and the dead until he returned to Trieste in the spring of 1907.

Joyce wrote “The Dead,” and all the other stories in DUBLINERS, with loving care for the geographical, historical, and political details of his native city. As a consequence most of the local references are painstakingly exact; they are part of Joyce’s “realism” and are often suggestive of everyday Dublin life.

We have supplied glosses where the significance of these references goes beyond matters of local color or Joycean realism. The aim of the footnotes, therefore, is to explain topical and religious references, literary allusions, historical and political nuances, and Irishisms which are likely to baffle the modern-day reader.

(From Goodreads)