For a lover of James Joyce and Irish Literature, arriving in Dublin on June 16th is pretty special. Although Joyce never used the word Bloomsday, the date itself is vital as it was on this day—in 1904 at 8:00 a.m.—that his great novel Ulysses begins: "stately, plump Buck Mulligan" greeted the morning with exuberant clowning, much to the annoyance of his friend, the "displeased and sleepy" Stephen Dedalus, just as Mr. Leopold Bloom, of 7 Eccles Street, was beginning to prepare breakfast for his wife, Molly. During the next 18 hours or so these people–and hundreds of others–will leap to blazing life in the pages of the greatest novel in English of the 20th century. During the final 50 or so pages, 33-year-old Molly Bloom will lie awake, unable to sleep, and gradually disclose her most intimate thoughts in the most celebrated soliloquy since Hamlet muttered "To be or not to be." [Michael Dirda, The Washington Post]
I also have another connection to Ireland. The day before I started my first year of teaching in 1972, I was approached by the Principal who informed me that I was also going to teach Modern World Problems, a course I had never heard of. I asked him what I should teach, and he said, "Oh, anything that's in the news!" So I began with the Irish Troubles and we learned about Ireland's history. (Later I talked about the Cuban Revolution, the life of Chairman Mao, the history of Palestine, etc. I was specifically told I could not teach MWP the next year!) The history of Ireland is fascinating and tragic. It comes back outside the General Post Office.
The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca) was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798.
Organised by the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising lasted from Easter Monday 24 April to 30 April 1916. Members of the Irish Volunteers, led by schoolteacher and barrister Patrick Pearse, joined by the smaller Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly, along with 200 members of Cumann na mBan, seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic independent of Britain.
At about 11.00 a.m. on Easter Monday in 1916, Patrick Pearse and the National Volunteers, along with James Connolly and the Irish Citizen Army, assembled at various prearranged meeting points in Dublin, and before noon set out to occupy a number of imposing buildings in the inner city area. These had been selected to command the main routes into the capital, and also because of their strategic position in relation to the major military barracks. They included the General Post Office, the Four Courts, Jacob’s Factory, Boland’s Bakery, the South Dublin Union, St. Stephen’s Green and later the College of Surgeons. The GPO was the nerve center of the rebellion. It served as the rebels’ headquarters and the seat of the provisional government which they declared. Five of its members served there – Pearse, Clarke, Connolly, MacDermott and Plunkett. It was also assumed that the British would not call in the Artillery, which would destroy much British-owned property.
The Four Courts
The British military onslaught, which the rebels had anticipated, did not at first materialize. When the Rising began the authorities had just 400 troops to confront roughly 1,000 insurgents. Their immediate priorities were therefore to amass reinforcements, gather information on volunteer strength and locations and protect strategic positions, including the seat of government, Dublin Castle, which had initially been virtually undefended. On Tuesday, a British force of 4,500 men with artillery attacked and secured the Castle.
To Dublin Castle
As the week progressed, the fighting in some areas did become intense, characterized by prolonged, fiercely contested hand-to-hand street battles. Military casualties were highest at Mount Street Bridge. There, newly arrived troops made successive, tactically inept, frontal attacks on determined and disciplined volunteers occupying several strongly fortified outposts. They lost 234 men, dead or wounded while just 5 rebels died. In some instances, lapses in military discipline occurred. Soldiers were alleged to have killed 15 unarmed men in North King Street near the Four Courts during intense gun battles there on 28th and 29th April. The pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington was the best- known civilian victim of the insurrection. He was arrested in Dublin on 25th April, taken to Portobello Barracks and shot by firing squad next morning without trial.
There is still debate about whether the British authorities responded competently to the Rising. Reinforcements were speedily drafted into the capital and by Friday 28th April, the 1,600 rebels (more had joined during the week) were facing 18-20,000 soldiers. From Thursday the GPO was entirely cut off from other rebel garrisons. Next day it came under a ferocious artillery attack which also devastated much of central Dublin, contrary to what the rebels had expected. Having learnt the lessons of Mount Street Bridge, the troops did not attempt a mass infantry attack. Their strategy was effective. It compelled the insurgent leaders, based at the Post Office, first to evacuate the building and later to accept the only terms on offer – unconditional surrender. The Post Office burned. Their decision was then made known to and accepted sometimes reluctantly, by all the rebel garrisons still fighting both in the capital and in the provinces." Sir John Maxwell, the British Commander-in-Chief had sixteen of the Irish court-martialed and shot. Patrick Pearse was the first to be executed, on May 3rd.
One of Pearse's most eloquent cries for freedom was his famous eulogy at a funeral in 1915.
"They think they have foreseen everything, but the fools! the fools! the fools! they have left us our Fenian dead; and while Ireland holds these graves 'Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.'"
In halting the executions, the government was responding to a wave of public revulsion, but the damage had been done. Ireland had a new gallery of martyrs, and earlier apathy or even hostility towards republicanism was replaced quickly by sympathy for the independence cause. Of some 3400 arrested following the surrender, more than half were imprisoned or interned in England, where they plotted a new onslaught on British rule.
Poblacht na h Éireann.
The Provisional Government
of the
Irish Republic
To the people of Ireland.
IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.
We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people.
The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.
We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.
The Spire of Dublin, officially titled the Monument of Light (An Túr Solais) is a large, stainless steel, pin-like monument 121.2 metres (398 ft) in height. It has various nicknames including The Spike and The Stiletto in the Ghetto.
The Monument of Light is located on the site of the former Nelson's Pillar; Nelson's monument was destroyed by the IRA in 1966.
The monument was commissioned as part of a re-designed street layout in 1999. O'Connell Street was perceived to have gone into decline from the 1970s. Some people blamed the appearance of fast food restaurants and the opening of bargain basement shops--all using cheap plastic shop fronts--visually unattractive and obtrusive, and the existence of a number of derelict sites.
In the 1990s, plans were launched to improve the streetscape. The excessive number of trees in the central median, which had overgrown and obscured the street's views and monuments, was reduced dramatically. Statues were cleaned and in some cases relocated. Shop-owners were required to replace plastic signage and frontage with more visually attractive designs. Private car traffic was re-directed where possible away from the street, with its number of traffic lanes reduced, to allow more 'public ownership' of the street for pedestrians.
Dónal Ó Conaill (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; Daniel O'Connell), known as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation—the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Ireland and Great Britain.
Details from the impressive Daniel O'Connell monument at the end of the popular boulevard that now bears his name.
We made the open bus tour twice. Here are a few selected images. I also wrote about Dublin's buildings in my blog, chapter 15 in 2008.
Trinity College, a key element in Dublin's history and life; not to mention important to James Joyce too.
The Guinness facilities take up many acres of the city of Dublin. Guinness truly is ubiquitous in Ireland! And good tasting, too!
James Joyce Bridge (Droichead James Joyce) is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey joining the south quays to Blackhall Place on the north side. Designed by Spanish architect Satiago Calatrava, it is a single-span structural steel design, 40 m (131 ft) long, with the deck supported from two outward angled arches. The bridge was built by Irishenco Construction, using pre-fabricated steel sections from Harland & Wolff of Belfast. Our tour guide said it was modelled after the human rib cage.
The bridge is named for James Joyce, and was opened on June 16, 2003. Joyce's short story "The Dead" is set in Number 15 Usher's Island, the house facing the bridge on the south side.
Once crafted as a rare Irish instrument, the harp has become a signature for Guinness, as well as the official stamp of the Irish Republic.
Temple Bar ( Barra an Teampaill) is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey. Unlike the areas surrounding it, Temple Bar has preserved its medieval street pattern, with many narrow cobbled streets. It is promoted as "Dublin's cultural quarter" and has a lively nightlife that is popular with tourists. After dark, the area is a major centre for nightlife, with many tourist-focused nightclubs, restaurants and bars. Pubs in the area include The Porterhouse, the Oliver St. John Gogarty, the Turk's Head, the Temple Bar, Czech Inn (in the former Isolde's Tower), the Quays Bar, the Foggy Dew and the Purty Kitchen.
Dirda also wrote that “Nabokov once announced—and who would know better?—that the pages in which Bloom prepares breakfast and talks to his cat are among the most beautiful in all literature. Single words, phrases, sentences, page after stunning page show us the beauty and possibilities of our gorgeous, infinitely various and supple English language.”
The figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower was that of a broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed redhaired freely freckled shaggybearded widemouthed largenosed longheaded deepvoiced barekneed brawnyhanded hairylegged ruddyfaced, sinewyarmed hero.
On Bloomsday, “in Irish bars, at community centers and on college campuses, marathon recitations of the great book start at 8 a.m. and run until Molly Bloom utters her final Yes. Such celebrations remind us that this is a story -- for all its consummate, subtle virtuosity -- about ordinary people and that ordinary people do enjoy its humor, language and glorious excess. The Irish, in particular, have continued to regard Joyce as a living writer, rather than treating him as an embalmed author.” [Dirda]
Pat is a waiter . . . A waiter is he. Hee hee hee hee. He waits while you wait. While you wait if you wait he will wait while you wait. --Ulysses
Appreciators of James Joyce can stroll by the old Finn's Hotel, where his lover and wife Nora Barnacle worked as a chambermaid. You can't check in - the building stands empty - but it still has Finn's Hotel painted on the side. Barnacle is considered by some to be the model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses, and the date of June 16th was likely chosen for the novel because that was the date of Joyce’s first encounter with Nora, outside Trinity College.
Saint Patrick's Cathedral (Árd Eaglais Naomh Pádraig) also known as The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Saint Patrick, Dublin, founded in 1191, is the larger of Dublin's two Church of Ireland cathedrals, and the largest church in Ireland.
Not significant, but to me this abstract symbolizes the merging of old and new to create the Guinness Tour experience.
Guinness has created an impressive tour, combining the old sections of the brewery with ultra-modern access to the Gravity Bar.
The Downhill Harp: This famous instrument, with provision for 30 strings, was made by Cormac O’Kelly of Ballynascreen, that district celebrated alike for masters of harps and makers of harp melodies. The box is cut from solid sally, with the lower portion curiously divided and inswept, and on its right side is inscribed:
In the time of Noah I was green,
Since his flood I had not seen,
Until Seventeen hundred and two I was
found by Cormac O Kelly underground:
He raised me up to the degree
That Queen of Musick you may call me.
Summary of the political consequences after the Easter Rising of 1916:
In the 1918 General Election to the British Parliament, republicans (then represented by the Sinn Féin party) won 73 seats out of 105. In January 1919, the elected members of Sinn Féin who were not still in prison at the time, including survivors of the Rising, convened the First Dáil and established the Irish Republic. The British Government refused to accept the legitimacy of the newly declared nation, precipitating the Irish War of Independence.
The Irish War of Independence (Cogadh na Saoirse, also known as the Anglo-Irish War or Tan War) was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed to a truce in July 1921, though violence continued in the northeast (mostly between republicans and loyalists). The post-ceasefire talks led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended British rule in most of Ireland and established the Irish Free State. However, six northern counties would remain within the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.
The Irish Civil War (Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom.
The conflict was waged between two opposing groups of Irish nationalists: the forces of the "Provisional Government" that established the Free State in December 1922, who supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and the Republican opposition, for whom the Treaty represented a betrayal of the Irish republic. The war was won by the Free State forces.
The treaty provided for a self-governing Irish state in 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, having its own army and police. However, rather than creating the independent republic favoured by most nationalists, the Irish Free State would be an autonomous dominion of the British Empire with the British monarch as head of state, in the same manner as Canada and Australia.
Michael Collins, the republican leader who had led the Irish negotiating team, argued that the treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire and develop, but the freedom to achieve freedom". However, anti-treaty militants in 1922 believed that the treaty would never deliver full Irish independence.
In 1926, having failed to persuade the majority of the Anti-Treaty IRA or the anti-treaty party of Sinn Féin to accept the new status quo as a basis for an evolving Republic, a large faction led by de Valera and Aiken left to resume constitutional politics and to found the Fianna Fáil party. Whereas Fianna Fáil was to become the dominant party in Irish politics, Sinn Féin became a small, isolated political party. The IRA, then much more numerous and influential than Sinn Féin, remained associated with Fianna Fáil (though not directly) until banned by de Valera in 1935.
In 1927, Fianna Fáil members took the Oath of Allegiance and entered the Dáil, effectively recognising the legitimacy of the Free State. The Free State was already moving towards independence by this point. In 1931, under the Statute of Westminster, the British Parliament gave up its right to legislate for members of the British Commonwealth. When elected to power in 1932, Fianna Fáil under de Valera set about dismantling what they considered to be objectionable features of the treaty, abolishing the Oath of Allegiance, removing the power of the Office of Governor General (British representative in Ireland) and abolishing the Senate, which was dominated by former Unionists and pro-treaty Nationalists. In 1937, they passed a new constitution which made a President the head of state, did not mention any allegiance to the British monarch and which included a territorial claim to Northern Ireland. The following year Britain returned without conditions the seaports it had kept under the terms of the treaty. Finally in 1948, a coalition government, containing elements of both sides in the Civil War (pro-treaty Fine Gael and anti-treaty Clann na Poblachta) left the British Commonwealth and re-named the Free State the Republic of Ireland.
The partition of Ireland (críochdheighilt na hÉireann) between the six north-eastern counties of Ireland and the rest of Ireland took place on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The 1920 Act created two jurisdictions: Northern Ireland and Southern Irelandboth of which were part of the United Kingdom.
On 6 December 1922, in accordance with the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the entire island of Ireland became the Irish Free State, a dominion in the British Commonwealth. The Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland, however, exercised their right to opt out of the new dominion the following day. Today Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom while the rest of the island is a sovereign state named Ireland.
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