Think unsexy thought. Think unsexy thoughts. Think unsexy thoughts.

Topics included corrections, Yeates and Son, parallax, eclipses, Dunsink Time, Thomas Moore, peristalsis, Bob Doran, Take off that white hat!, Huguenots, the princess of the Lestrygonians, Leopold Bloom’s failed attempt to think unsexy thoughts, Bloom as sideways Odysseus, Bloom failing to destroy Molly’s suitor, and a quick escape.

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Zoe Patterson of Trinity College Dublin joins Blooms & Barnacles to talk about about her research into James Joyce community groups.

To listen to the full episode, check out patreon.com/barnaclecast

"If you do the eyes of that cow will pursue you through all eternity."

Topics in this episode include two-headed octopuses, the Freemasons, the real Lizzie Twigg, Dublin's oldest vegetarian restaurants, Æ, vegetarianism in the early twentieth century, Pythagorus, nutarians and fruitarians, Leopold Bloom's brief foray into vegetarianism, nutsteak, mashed yeast, the elitism of vegetarians, James Joyce's vendetta against vegetarians, whether or not a vegetarian diet inspires poetry, the transformative power of food, taking the soup, and metempsychosis.

Weggebobbles and Fruit: Vegetarianism in Ulysses

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We discuss the Dubliners short story, "Grace", in the final episode of our Dubliners series.

Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/barnaclecast

“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"

To listen to the full episode, please visit patreon.com/barnaclecast

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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