“Cyclops”

Part One

“…but a bloody sweep came along and he near drove his gear into my eye.” (12.2-3)

• The near miss of the chimney sweep’s broom and ladder (reminiscent of Odysseus’s burning pike of olive wood) suggests that the narrator is one of the Cyclopes.

“…beyond by the garrison church at the corner of Chicken lane” (12.13-14)

• Garrison Church, attached to Garrison Schools and a military hospital and the Provost Marshal’s Prison.

“Sure, he’s out in John of God’s off his head, poor man.” (12.55)

• House of St. John of God, Stillorgan Park, County Dublin, was a “Licensed Private Asylum for the Insane.”

“I want to see the citizen.” (12.58)

• Modeled on Michael Cusack (1847-1907), founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association (1884), which was dedicated to the revival of Irish sports such as hurling, Gaelic football, and handball.

“In Inisfail the fair there lies a land, the land of holy Michan. There rises a watchtower beheld of men

afar.” (12.68)

• Barney Kiernan’s pub was in St. Michan’s parish.• The 100-foot-square tower of St. Michan’s dates from the twelfth century and is

considerably older than the church itself.

“And there rises a shining palace whose crystal glittering roof is seen by mariners…” (12.87-88)

• The Dublin Corporation Fruit, Vegetable, and Fish Market, between St. Michan’s and Arran streets.

“Thither the extremely large wains bring foison of the fields” (12.91)

• Large open horse-drawn vehicles used for carrying heavy loads, especially of agricultural produce.

“Rangoon beans” (12.92-93)

• A variety of muskmelon, two to three feet long, one to three inches in diameter; they resemble giant string beans and are used sometimes for preserves but more often as an oddity gourd.

“drills of Swedes” (12.93)

• A “Swede” is a large variety of yellow turnip; a “drill” is the small furrow in which seed is sown.

“… from M’Gillicuddy’s reeks the inaccessible and lordly Shannon the unfathomable” (12.112)

• McGillicuddy’s Reeks, the highest mountain range in Ireland, is in County Kerry, “the wild southwest.”

• The River Shannon runs south through central Ireland and then west to the Atlantic.

“The eyes in which a tear and a smile strove ever for the mastery…” (12.161-62)

• From Thomas Moore’s poem “Erin, the Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes,” in Irish Melodies.

“Cuchulin, Conn of hundred battles” (12.176-77)

• Cuchulin, (The Hound of Culan or Hound of Feats), a legendary figure, the great hero of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster. (Pictured left)

• Conn of hundred battles, the first of the high kings of Ireland.

“Art MacMurragh, […], Father John Murphy, Owen Roe” (12.177-78)

• Art MacMurragh (1357-1417), he was famous for his refusal to submit to Richard II’s overlordship of Ireland. (Pictured left)

• Father John Murphy (1753-98), a priest and patriot, one of the first and principal leaders in the southeast during the Rebellion of 1798. (Pictured center)

• Owen Roe O’Neill (1590-1649), an Irish soldier who served in the Spanish army.

“Red Hugh O’Donnell, […], Soggarth Eoghan O’Growney, Michael Dwyer” (12.179-80)

• Red Hugh O’Donnell (1571-1602), lord of Tyrconnell. He was imprisoned in Dublin Castle in 1587 but escaped. (Pictured left)

• Father Eugene O’Growney (1863-99), one of the moving spirits of the Gaelic revival and a founder of the Gaelic League. (Pictured center)

• Michael Dwyer (1771-1816), a leader of the Rebellion of 1798, he eluded the English for five years. (Pictured right)

“Henry Joy M’Cracken, […], Peg Woffington, […], Captain Boycott” (12.180-82)

• Henry Joy M’Cracken (1767-98), a leader of the United Irishmen in Ulster.• Margaret Woffington (1720-60), a Dublin street child whose career as one of the

most successful actresses of her time began in 1737. (Pictured center)• Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832-97), an Englishman who was land agent in

Ireland for an absentee landowner, the earl of Erne. He was a widely publicized victim of the treatment that subsequently bore his name. (Pictured right)

“S.Fursa, S.Brendan, […], Charlemagne, Theobald Wolfe Tone” (12.183-84)

• S. Fursa, an Irish saint, festival 16 January. His mission founded a monastery in Ireland, another in England, and two on the Continent. (Pictured left)

• S. Brendan (484-577), an Irish saint, festival 16 May. He founded monasteries in Ireland and in Brittany and was called Brendan the Navigator after his voyages.

• Charles the Great (742-814), king of the Franks after 768 and Roman emperor. • Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-98), an Irish revolutionary and one of the founders of the United

Irishmen. (Pictured right)

“Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte, John L. Sullivan” (12.187)

• Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), famous for, among other things, his “way with the ladies.” (Pictured left)

• Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), more successful as a conqueror than as a lover.

• John L. Sullivan (1858-1918), the Irish-American heavyweight champion from Boston, Massachusetts.

“Julius Caesar, Paracelsus” (12.188)

• Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) (Pictured left)• Phillippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493-1541), a German-Swiss alchemist

and physician noted in medical history for his attention to pharmaceutical chemistry and famous as the author of a visionary Theosophical system.

“sir Thomas Lipton, William Tell” (12.188-89)

• Sir Thomas Lipton (1850-1931), a Glasgow-born millionaire merchant of Irish parentage, known for the tea that still bears his name. (Pictured left)

• William Tell, the hero of a Swiss legend, he was forced by a tyrant to prove his marksmanship by shooting an apple off his son’s head. (Pictured right)

“Peter the Packer, […], Tristan and Isolde, the first Prince of Wales, Thomas Cook and Son” (12.190-93)

• Peter the Packer, a nickname for Lord Peter O’Brien of Kilfenora (1842-1914), crown counsel and eventually lord chief justice of Ireland. (Pictured left)

• Tristan and Isolde, the hero and heroine of the legendary love story are associated with Ireland because Isolde is an Irish princess.

• Edward II of England (1284-1327), was the first heir apparent of the English throne to bear the subsequently traditional title Prince of Wales (1301).

• Thomas Cook and Son, the travel agency, founded in 1841. (Pictured right)

“Arthur Wellesley, Boss Croker” (12.196)

• Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), duke of Wellington. The Dublin-born duke was not the soul of popularity in his native country. (Pictured left)

• Richard Crocker (1843-1922), an Irish-born American politician; he became leader of the Tammany Hall Democratic machine in New York City.

“Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Don Philip O’Sullivan Beare” (12.199)

• Jeremiah O’Donovan (1831-1915), a Fenian leader whose advocacy of violent measures in Ireland’s struggle for independence earned him the nickname “Dynamite Rossa.” (Pictured left)

• Don Philip O’Sullivan Beare (1590-1660), the Irish-born Spanish soldier and historian who wrote Historiae Catholicae Iberniae Compendium.

“For the old woman of Prince’s street, says the citizen, the subsidised organ.” (12.218-19)

• That is, the Freeman’s Journal, which was regarded as the “official” newspaper of the Irish Nationalist cause.

“The Irish Independent, if you please, founded by Parnell to be the workingman’s friend.” (12.220-21)

• The Freeman’s Journal held to its support of Parnell long after most of his supporters had turned against him.

“How’s that for Martin Murphy, the Bantry jobber?” (12.237)

• William Martin Murphy (1844-1921) was the owner of the Irish Daily Independent.

“…the noble twin brothers Bungiveah and Bungarilaun” (12.281-82)

• Sir Edward Guinness, Lord Iveagh (pictured left), and Sir Arthur Guinness, Lord Ardilaun, brothers though not twins, owned Guinness’s Brewery.

“…cunning as the sons of deathless Leda.” (12.282-83)

• In Greek mythology, Castor, the tamer of horses, and Pollux, the adept boxer, were the twin sons of Leda, who had been impregnated by Zeus disguised as a swan.

“…a testoon of costliest bronze” (12.291)

• A silver-bronze shilling coin introduced in the reign of Henry VIII.

“Communication was effected through the pituitary body…” (12.343)

• Or gland, regarded by some Theosophists and spiritualists as that which unites the body with the soul.

“…for it was reported in devanic circles that Mars and Jupiter were out for mischief on the eastern

angle where the ram has power.” (12.359-60)

• In astrology, the planet Jupiter signifies a high-spirited, energetic mind, committed to new and progressive ideas and somewhat religiously inclined.

• Mars signifies a passionate, challenging temperament.

“Master Barber” (12.431)

• Barbers were originally surgeons and dentists as well as dressers of beards and hair.

“I heard that from the head warder that was in Kilmainham when they hanged Joe Brady, the

invincible.” (12.460)

• Kilmainham Gaol, on the western outskirts of Dublin, was notorious for the generations of Irish patriots who were imprisoned and/or executed within its walls.

“…the men of sixtyseven” (12.481)

• The Fenians made an attempt at rebellion in 1867, but it was abortive for various reasons.

“…the brothers Sheares” (12.498-99)

• Henry (1755-98) and John (1766-98) Sheares were both members of the United Irishmen in the Rebellion of 1798. Betrayed by an informer, they were captured and went hand in hand to their execution.

“…the Tommy Moore touch about Sara Curran and she’s far from the land.” (12.500-501)

• Sara Curran was secretly engaged to Robert Emmet, and, on the evidence of letters found on him when he was captured, implicated in his plot.

“…the matchless melody endeared to us from the cradle by Speranza’s plaintive muse.” (12.538-39)

• Speranza, the pseudonym of Jane Francisca Elgee, Lady Wilde (1826-96), Oscar Wilde’s mother.

“Borus Hupinkoff” (12.566)

• The pun includes Boris Godunov (1551-1605), virtual regent of Russia and then czar. The reign of the historical Boris was a mixed blessing for Russia.

“…as to whether the eighth or the ninth of March was the correct date of the birth of Ireland’s patron

saint.” (12.573-74)

• St. Patrick (c.385-c.461). Not only is the day of his birth unknown but also the year and the place.

“…which has been in the possession of his family since the revolution of Rienzi” (12.607)

• Cola di Rienzi (1313-54) was a Roman popular leader. In 1347 he led a revolution in Rome, successfully displacing the ruling aristocracy and introducing governmental reforms.

“…and there was a fellow with a Ballyhooly blue ribbon badge” (12.689)

• Identifies the wearer as a member of a temperance brigade founded by the “apostle of temperance,” the Reverend Theobald Mathew, in Ballyhooly, a village near Fermoy in County Cork.

“the famous Raftery” (12.729)

• Anthony Raftery (1784-1834), the blind Irish poet known as “the last of the bards.”

“Mr Allfours (Tamoshant. Con.)” (12.865)

• In addition to the pun, “Allfours” suggests the Right Honorable Arthur James Balfour, afterwards Earl Balfour (1848-1930), a Scot, first lord of the Treasury, leader of the House of Commons, and Conservative prime minister in 1904.

“…the rev. P.J. Kavanagh” (12.928-29)

• Patrick Fidelis Kavanagh (1834-1916), an Irish priest, poet, and historian known for his ability an an orator and for his History of the Rebellion of 1798.