June 16th
- Bloomsday – the day that is forever associated with James
Joyce's Ulysses. The day he met, in Nassau Street, Nora
Barnacle, chambermaid at Finns Hotel who was to become his lover,
wife, life-long companion and muse.
Ulysses, the novel - though that is scarcely what it is - takes place over that one day in Dublin in 1904.
Joyce's Dublin is
still there despite the changes and you can follow the paths taken by
his two protagonists as they make their way from opposite sides of
the city and eventually, by chance, meet in the Holles Materrnity
Hospital.
The solicitous Leopold Bloom is enquiring of a woman he
knows who has been three days in labour while the impetuous Stephen
Dedalus is getting drunk with the medical students. Having met Stephen's father at the funeral of Paddy Dignam, Bloom's concern
for young Dedalus is such that he later rescues him from a beating by
two soldiers in Bella Cohen's bordello.
Last year, we made
our way in from Dalkey where Joyce / Dedalus taught at school and lived in a
Martello tower, following him on his day off into the city to the National
Library.
(Blog 6th April 2013)
This year we came
from the north of the city from Eccles Street. No.7, the home of
Bloom and his unfaithful, but loving. wife Molly, no longer exists but
the rest of the Georgian frontage with the fanlights over the doors,
is still there.
In O'Connel Street, you can still see
Graham Lemon's sweet shop - “a sugar-sticky girl shovelling scoops
of creams for a christian brother. Some school treat.”, where Bloom
is given a free newspaper – a throwaway - which gives rise to much
misunderstanding and malice.
A twenty-to-one outsider called Throwaway did win the Gold Cup in 1904.
A twenty-to-one outsider called Throwaway did win the Gold Cup in 1904.
The racing mad
populace of the Dublin pubs think he has backed the horse and resent
him for it but Bloom is quite unaware of it all.
We followed his meanderings around the city centre before and after the funeral - the shops, pubs, meeting places, offices and public places of Joyce's remembered city.
Joyce left in 1904, ran off with Nora, and only returned briefly on four occasions, the last in 1912.
Although the Dublin of 1904 is the setting, the themes, thoughts, connections, literary and mythological links, symbolism, and archetypes found in Ulysses are universal and timeless. It could be set in any city in any country yet because James Joyce wrote it, it had to be and still has to be, Dublin in 1904.
We followed his meanderings around the city centre before and after the funeral - the shops, pubs, meeting places, offices and public places of Joyce's remembered city.
Joyce left in 1904, ran off with Nora, and only returned briefly on four occasions, the last in 1912.
Although the Dublin of 1904 is the setting, the themes, thoughts, connections, literary and mythological links, symbolism, and archetypes found in Ulysses are universal and timeless. It could be set in any city in any country yet because James Joyce wrote it, it had to be and still has to be, Dublin in 1904.
Davy Byrne's pub is
still as popular as it was in Joyce's day.
Bloom muses...
"Moral pub. He doesn't chat. Stands a drink now and then . But in a leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once".
After a glass of wine there, he continues his perambulations around the Dublin streets.
He feeds the gulls with a couple of Banbury cakes bought from an old woman's stall for a penny.
Bloom muses...
"Moral pub. He doesn't chat. Stands a drink now and then . But in a leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once".
After a glass of wine there, he continues his perambulations around the Dublin streets.
He feeds the gulls with a couple of Banbury cakes bought from an old woman's stall for a penny.
We couldn't get Banbury cakes so had to make do with croisants – three for 2 Euros!
Further down Bachelors Walk, the Ormond Hotel, where he had a late lunch in the back
room to avoid meeting his wife's lover, Blazes Boylan, is sadly dilapidated.
Mabbot Street, the
entrance to “Night-town”, the red light area where Bloom and
Dedalus end up is still there if now thoroughly respectable. The site of Bella Cohen's house
of ill repute seems to have become the glass fronted tower of an asset
management company, but then Bella was just managing her assets in
1904.
Mabbot Lane |
Joyce's Dublin
cannot survive for ever but with careful planning and preservation, we
should be able to follow Bloom, Molly, Blazes Boylan, Stephen
Dedalus, Buck Mulligan about their city for years to come......and
feed the seagulls at O'Connel Bridge.
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