Blooms & Barnacles

“Simon Dedalus said when they put him in parliament that Parnell would come back from the grave and lead him out of the house of commons by the arm.”

Topics in this episode include James Stephens and his organizational blunder, Michaelmas traditions, architecture and peristalsis, the legacy of Dr George Salmon and his big spooky house, reevaluating historical figures like Dr Salmon, John Howard Parnell and his many siblings, the difficulty of being a “brother’s brother,” the Irish connection to peach cultivation in the American South, Charles Stewart Parnell becomes a problematic fave, obtaining a cushy sinecure as Dublin city marshal, Charley Boulger, the Dublin Bread Company, John Howard Parnell’s anemic political career, Fanny Parnell, Emily Dickinson, Anna Parnell, historical misogyny, the Kennedys, David Sheehy M.P., the time Dermot met Conor Cruise O’Brien, the Chiltern hundreds, ghost Parnell, and eating oranges in the Phoenix Park to own the Orangemen.

​​Decoding Bloom: John Howard Parnell

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Was Leopold Bloom ever totally radical?

Topics in this episode include Bloom’s memory of a protest, Bloom’s view of the police, the significance of soup imagery, the origins of the Boer War, Irish Nationalist opposition to the Boer War, Joseph Chamberlain, Christiaan de Wet, the irony of Irish Nationalist support for the Boer cause, a French depiction of the protests in Dublin, the class politics of political protest, Sean O’Casey’s daring showdown with a mounter police officer, profiting from the colonization of Africa, poetry as propaganda, a Parnell conspiracy theory, Bloom’s failed attempts to seem more patriotic than he is, the wrong Gough in the park, Bloom’s own profiteering, and the fate of Percy Apjohn.

Up the Boers!

Decoding Dedalus: Hamlet, ou le Absentminded Beggar

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We discuss the Dubliners story, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room"

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The constables have been let out to graze.

Topics in this episode include: 1904 popular culture, James Carlyle and the Irish Times, foxhunting, horsey people, Leopold Bloom’s disdain for high class women, The Irish Field, a personal ad from the 1870’s, Mrs Miriam Dandrade, the Purefoys, Fletcherism, the Chew-Chew Method, fad diets of yore, munching parties, hardy annuals, whether or not consumption makes you randy, phthisis, searching for Mrs Moisel, Mrs Thornton, Bloom mocks the police, The Pirates of Penzance, Thomas Moore, Avoca, and “The Meeting of the Waters.”

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“Everybody who met her liked her - because she was warm and outgoing. Here I am saying good things about Lizzie. Poor Liz - nobody remembers her now.” - Padraic Colum, 1969

This episode features an interview with scholar Elizabeth Foley O’Connor about Irish poet Lizzie Twigg, her legacy as a poet, her brief mention in Ulysses, how she fell under James Joyce’s critical eye, and why she deserved better. We also discuss tarot artist Pamela Colman Smith, the subject of Foley O’Connor’s book Pamela Colman Smith: Artist, Feminist & Mystic.

The Women of Ulysses: Lizzie Twigg

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“Dubliners were proud of Endymion. They were proud that they tolerated Endymion, but also that he tolerated them. Most people watched him and remembered him with affection, and only a few were aware of the darker side to some of his mutterings.” - John Simpson

Who was the real Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell?

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We discuss Dubliners stories “A Painful Case” and “A Mother”

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Inside the madness of Breen

Topics in this episode include deep Ulysses lore, nostalgia traps, Molly’s suitors, the Glencree dinner, Old Professor Goodwin, Mr. and Mrs. Breen, U.p: up, the Ace of Spades, Breen’s postcard as an empty threat, an old forgotten expression, word play, hidden meanings, codes, peeing up and cloacal obsessions, Larry David, body shaming and erectile dysfunction, the Nolan and the wildest theory about U.p: up, accusations of apostasy, a controversy of Presbyterians, Michael Cusack and U.p: up, who sent the U.p: up postcard, Ulysses Pseudangelos and the lure of false messengers, Sailor Murphy, to roc and the black spot in “Ithaca.”

U.P: Up

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Rashers Tierney would have gotten those Hely’s Sandwichmen into shape. Plus, his name is thematically apt.

Topics in this episode include memories of life in 1960’s Dublin, Leopold Bloom’s philosophy of advertising, whether or not a nun invented barbed wire, the intersection of religion, advertising and potted meat, the rite of Melchisedek, open-faced club sand wedge, the Hely’s sandwichmen, Wisdom Hely, Bloom’s employment history, Bloom’s grief, whether or not Wisdom Hely is good at advertising, whether Bloom’s ideas actually have any merit, Victorian advertising, cannibals, Szombathely and all the secret codes hidden therein.

Kino's & Hely's: Two Ads in Lestrygonians

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We discuss Dubliners stories “Counterparts” and “Clay”

Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast