Irish history
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Ep. 122- A Hungarian it was one day…
Did Leopold Bloom really give Arthur Griffith the idea for Sinn Fein? Topics in this episode include Stephen delivering Mr. Deasy’s letter, Stephen’s vampire poem, Crawford dunks on Mr. Deasy, a cure for foot and mouth disease, the assassination attempt against Emperor Franz Josef, Maximilian Karl O’Donnell, graf von Tirconnell’s heroic defense of the Emperor,…
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Leopold Bloom’s Gorgonzola
“He entered Davy Byrne’s. Moral pub. He doesn’t chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.” Following a long, restless journey across Dublin’s city centre in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, Leopold Bloom finally sits down to his lunch. After a close encounter in the…
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Rawhead and Bloody Bones in the Burton
“Although Joyce’s parallel reduces Homer’s ‘murderous reception’ to the farce of teeth chomping, a similar violence does exist here, if only in the poverty that has produced this scene…” – Trevor L. Williams After passing through Grafton St. on the way to lunch in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, Leopold Bloom must pass through one more…
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Ep. 118 – The Sham Squire
—And here comes the sham squire himself! professor MacHugh said grandly. Topics in this episode include the last vestiges of Doughy Daw’s effulgence, the mysterious identity of Wetherup, Myles Crawford, the real men behind Myles Crawford, red the correpsondent color of “Aeolus”, the Egyptian god Thoth, Crawford’s birdlike qualities, the birds of augury, banter, Francis…
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Decoding Bloom: John Howard Parnell
This is a post in a series called Decoding Bloom where I take a paragraph of Ulysses and break it down line by line. The passage below comes from “The Lestrygonians”, the eighth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page 164-165 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). It begins “Provost’s house” and ends “house of…
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Up the Boers!
As Leopold Bloom passes beneath Tommy Moore’s roguish finger on his long walk to lunch in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, a flock of cops catches his attention: “A squad of constables debouched from College street, marching in Indian file. Goosestep. Foodheated faces, sweating helmets, patting their truncheons. After their feed with a good load of…
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Ep. 110 – Aeolus
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind… We kick off our series on Ulysses’ seventh episode, “Aeolus”! Topics in this episode include Book X of The Odyssey, Homeric parallels found in “Aeolus”, the headlines, the Evening Telegraph as it appears in Ulysses, Stromboli, brazen walls and floating isles, wind and air imagery, the…
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Ep. 109 – The Tower of Silence
Break out the Tantalus glasses – we’re finally getting out of the Underworld! Topics in our final episode covering “Hades” include paying the ferryman, turning a suit, rats, Robert Emmet, the speech from the dock, toxic nostalgia, cremation, the Catholic Church’s position on cremation, quicklime, Zoroastrianism, the Parsi Tower of Silence, the unexpected consequences of…
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Ep. 102 – Murderer’s Ground
Wanna grab a pint at the Brian Boroimhe? Or is it Boroihme? Boru? Topics discussed in this episode include the days when cattle roamed the North Circular Road, the Royal Canal, the identity of Dublin’s own Charon, locks, how realistic it would be for Bloom to walk to Mullingar (it’s not), the Brian Boroimhe House,…