Blooms & Barnacles

Stephen Dedalus learns the value of gentlemanly blasphemy in this episode of Blooms & Barnacles. Our hero evades the nets of his oppressors while recalling a conversation with a friend in Paris. Topics include the changing face of Ringsend, the Pigeonhouse, Stephen's epiphanies and the Epiphany, Dermot speaking French, what Jules Michelet doesn't know about women, absinthe, the elaborate blasp...

This episode of Blooms & Barnacles takes an esoteric twist as we continue deeper into "Proteus", Ulysses' third episode. Topics include: why Dermot is not impressed with the Library of Alexandria, the length of a mahamanvantara, what the heck a mahamanvantara is, Joyce's youthful rage put into poetry, Joyce's youthful interest in theosophy, Pico della Mirandola's desire to speak to a...

Dermot and Kelly tickle your brain with Stephen Dedalus' thoughts on the Eucharist, William of Occam, hypostasis, consubstantiation, transubstantiation... we've got it all! Other major philosophical queries discussed include: How can so much bread and wine all become Christ's body and blood. Does Stephen really understand hypostasis. When does soup become soup? Is it immoral to impersonate a pries...

Linus Ignatius and Llewie Nuñez starred in the play Lucia Mad as James and Lucia Joyce, respectively, back in their university days. They drop by the podcast for a deep dive into the complex and tragic life of James Joyce's daughter Lucia. We discuss how they prepared to portray the Joyces on-stage, Lucia's genius as an artist, her struggle with mental illness, the stigma she faced within the Joyc...

Join Kelly and Dermot for a story about James Joyce's youthful rebellion against the literary establishment of Dublin, his obsession with the apocalyptic predictions of a 12th century monk, a tale of psychic horror by W.B. Yeats, Jonathan Swift and Dublin's oldest public library . It's a jam-packed episode!  Bonus : Dermot interviews Kelly about completing her blog series about "Proteus.&quot...

Kelly and Dermot are joined by translator Kenji Hayakawa to discuss the gargantuan task of translating Finnegans Wake into Japanese.  We discuss Naoki Yanase's translation of Joyce's classic novel into Japanese, creating special software Japanese characters to tackle Joyce's various coinages, why Japanese is an ideal language in which to read Finnegans Wake, why only translators truly understand F...

Stephen contemplates the horror of a visit to his Aunt Sara and Uncle Richie's house. We discuss parallels in this scene with Joyce's real life aunt and uncle, why Joyce's Aunt Josephine gave away her first edition of Ulysses, the intractable Dubliner/culchie divide, middle class pretension, Hiberno-English, Wilde's Requiescat , and the difficulty of parsing conversations written in Joyce's signat...

Dermot and Kelly get an insider's view of the Sandycove Martello Tower - the Omphalos of Dublin itself! Maggie Fitzgerald, James Holohan and Andrew Basquille give Blooms & Barnacles a tour of all the museum's nooks and crannies. Discussions include the Joycean historical items on display in the museum, the history of the tower, what really went down the night Joyce stormed out of the museum, h...

Let's have fun with consubstantiality! Kelly and Dermot untangle Stephen Dedalus' thoughts on the dual nature of God the Father and God the Son, the Nicene Creed, the difference between being made and being begotten, the death of Arius, seahorses, a shocking fact about the Star Wars cantina and an even more shocking fact about the symbolism of doves. Sweny's  Patreon helps keep this marvelous Dubl...

Blooms & Barnacles catches up with P.J. Murphy and Jack Walsh of Sweny's Pharmacy in Dublin, the location where Leopold Bloom bought his lemon soap in Ulysses . In addition to P.J. and Jack, we had the chance to talk to many friend's of Sweny's from all over the world! Topics include the future of Sweny's Pharmacy, why you should visit Sweny's on Christmas, the repatriation of Joyce's remains...

In this installment of Blooms & Barnacles, Kelly and Dermot engage in some good, old-fashioned navel gazing. Discussion topics include working class life in Edwardian Dublin, the poetry of Algernon Swinburne the perils of childbirth during the same period, whether Adam and Eve had bellybuttons, and why Kelly thinks people in antiquity had predominantly outie bellybuttons. They also get to the...

Ineluctable modality of the animated! Get to know your favorite Irish host of Blooms and Barnacles - Dermot O Connor. Kelly and Dermot talk about his work as the illustrator of the Blooms and Barnacles blog, how to illustrate a blog about Ulysses when you've never read Ulysses, artistic influences and inspirations, working for Don Bluth and Disney, what every American should know about Ireland and...

Real talk: why are there no seagulls on Sandymount Strand on Bloomsday? Have we stumbled onto a historical seagull-based conspiracy? Stay tuned to find out! Additionally, we'll also continue discussing how Stephen's walk on the beach is influenced by Berkeleyan idealism, Stephen's perception of space and time, how blind people perceive the world and the Demiurge. Sweny's  Patreon helps keep this m...

Ineluctable modality of the podcast! A discussion of the first paragraph of "Proteus," in which Kelly and Dermot try to make sense of Stephen's untethered inner monologue. We discuss Aristotle's theory of vision, Bishop George's Berkeley's mistrust of sense perception, an interpretation of a famous meme, who Jakob Boehme was and what he meant by "signature of all things." This...

The time has come for Blooms & Barnacles to tackle Ulysses' third episode - "Proteus"! This is Ulysses' first "difficult" episode - jam-packed with multiple languages and obscure references. This week's podcast gives an overview of many of the themes found in "Proteus," including its connection to The Odyssey, the influence of esoteric doctrines on the text and Jo...

Blooms and Barnacles' series on Mr. Deasy and "Nestor" comes to a close with a discussion of the old headmaster's biased views of women's negative impact on history. The relative culpability of four woman accused of causing history's great evils is explored, along with what exactly Stephen means when he refers to God as a "shout in the street." Please consider contributing my f...

Kelly and Dermot deconstruct the nightmare of history shared by the Irish and the Jews alike. We further explore the intricacies of Mr. Deasy's bigotry and what it tells us about what life was like in 1900's Dublin. Other topics covered include one possible source of Joyce's hatred of Gogarty, the correlation of antisemitism and nationalism and the legend of the Wandering Jew and its influence on...

Per vias rectas ! Mr. Deasy's origins - revealed! Kelly and Dermot dive into Joyce's real life acquaintances and experiences that inspired the gruff headmaster Mr. Deasy in Ulysses ' second episode, "Nestor." Topics covered include why Mr. Deasy is so concerned about foot and mouth disease, the relative rebelliousness of voting in favor of the Union and why Mr. Deasy seems to be unaware...

This week, Kelly and Dermot explain the nightmarish history tucked into Stephen's terse rebuttal of Mr. Deasy's weak grasp of Irish history. The passage covered can be found on p. 31 of Kelly's edition of Ulysses (1990 Vintage International). Topics covered include the history of the Orange Order, the Battle of the Diamond, the Planters' Covenant, the power of copyright law over sectarianism, and...

History is the art of Nestor, so let's immerse ourselves in the nightmare of history, at least the bits covered on  p. 31 of Ulysses. Learn about Stephen's hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.  Mr. Deasy tries to teach Stephen a history, but (spoiler alert) he doesn't know much about history. Topics covered include Daniel O'Connell, the Orange lodges, the Famine and the Fenians.  This episode cov...

A character study of the infamous Mr. Deasy, the headmaster of Stephen's school in "Nestor," the second episode of Ulysses. We discuss how Mr. Deasy is a stereotypical Dubliner of his day, as well as his defining characteristics (including his impressive mustache!) Mr. Deasy has a lot to teach us, though he is an old wise man archetype with no wisdom. We talk lots of history and politics...

A lifelong lover of the works of Joyce, Steve Carey is an organizer of the Bloomsday celebration in Melbourne, Australia. He chats with Kelly about (briefly) meeting Richard Ellmann, the joys and travails of adapting Ulysses for the stage, a heroic battle over trousers in Tom Stoppard's Travesties, and how to get a period hearse for your Bloomsday procession. This episode is not to be missed! Swen...

Kelly and Dermot tackle the reference to Averroes and Maimonides in "Nestor." Not only does this episode cover these two philosophers and their connection to Aristotle, there's also plenty of discussion on Morris dance, Giordano Bruno and the thematic importance of goth kids.  Sweny's Patreon is half-way to its goal, but they can still use your help. Please subscribe ! On the blog: Decod...

A super-sized Blooms and Barnacles! Dick is a friend of Kelly's and Dermot's who is a lover of Ulysses and the music found throughout the novel. Dick talks about some of his favorite songs that play a role in Ulysses and the history behind them. We also chat about the use of music in "The Dead," the final story in The Dubliners . And because we've never  met a tangent we didn't like, we...

While begrudge as a verb exists throughout the English speaking world, begrudgery as a noun is peculiar to Ireland. Dermot and Kelly discuss what makes Irish begrudgery a unique phenomena, how it affected Dermot growing up in Ireland, and, of course, how begrudgery influenced James Joyce's life and writing. Further Reading: The Irish Times on begrudgery here and here . Sweny's  Patreon is almost t...