‘Louis Werner is touring here, Mr Bloom said. O yes, we’ll have all topnobbers. J.C. Doyle and John MacCormack I hope and. The best, in fact.’ (James Joyce, Ulysses) By Eugene Dunphy From boyhood into manhood, James Joyce was immersed in music. At the Martello Terrace family home in Bray, he often witnessed his father … Read more
A New Zealand perspective on the Easter Rising. By Rory Sweetman Jack Garland was an orderly with the New Zealand Medical Corps attached to the hospital ship Marama during the First World War. The 21-year-old corporal spent the first few months of 1916 evacuating wounded Allied troops from around the Mediterranean, including many survivors of … Read more
Themes in Irish politics that have recurred over nine decades. By James McNaney ‘Sinn Fein is not a normal political party.’ When Leo Varadkar said this during the recent general election campaign, he did not mean that Sinn Féin is unconventional but expressed fears over the party’s links to the IRA. Members of Fine Gael … Read more
A Joycean critique of The resurrection of Hungary? By Martin Greene In the ‘Cyclops’ episode of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, a Dubliner of Hungarian-Jewish descent, has an unpleasant encounter in Barney Kiernan’s public house with the bigoted nationalist known as ‘The Citizen’. One of the issues of the day is Arthur Griffith’s ‘Hungarian policy’. It’s 16 … Read more
By Fiona Fitzsimons Between 1840 and 1853 vaccination acts introduced free, compulsory immunisation against smallpox in England and Wales. Similar laws for Ireland were enacted in 1863. The Compulsory Vaccination (Ireland) Act required parents and guardians to vaccinate every child born after 1 January 1864, with a follow-up appointment within eight days to determine the … Read more