Erected in 1809 to commemorate Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, and destroyed 157 years later, Nelson’s Pillar was located, in Joyce’s day, right in the middle of Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street). It stood in the center of the intersection of that main thoroughfare and Henry and Earl Streets. “The Pillar,” as it was also […]
Tag: clay
“Clay” Route
The route Maria travels in “Clay,” from the laundry in Ballsbridge to her brother Joe’s house in Drumcondra, is approximately 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles). Though the distance doesn’t seem great, she estimates the trip will take about an hour: “The women would have their tea at six o’clock and she would be able to get away […]
Earl Street
Earl Street is situated on the north side of the Liffey in the heart of Dublin. It runs from O’Connell Street on the west to Marlborough Street on the east. The street is mentioned in passing by Corley in “Two Gallants:” “She’s on the turf now. I saw her driving down Earl Street one night […]
Belfast
Belfast, now the capital of Northern Ireland, was in Joyce’s day an industrial center that generally, partly because its population depended on its industry, opposed Home Rule. In Dubliners, the city appears in three stories: “Eveline,” “Clay,” and “Grace.” That the adolescence, maturity, and public life sections all reference Belfast, while the childhood section omits […]
Downes’s Cake Shop
The first featured place of the week is Downes’s cake-shop, where Maria buys penny cakes in “Clay:” “She went into Downes’s cake-shop but the shop was so full of people that it was a long time before she could get herself attended to…She decided to buy some plumcake but Downes’s plumcake had not enough almond […]