iv. The Popular Press and Joyce's Knowledge of Early Irish Literature

Material about early Irish and Modern Irish literature, Irish history, and the Irish language, as well as coverage of the Anglo-Irish literary revival, is widespread in most periodical literature published in Ireland at the turn of the century, and the general pattern that emerges regarding Joyce's knowledge of Irish literature and history from the detailed analysis of articles in the United Irishman is confirmed by a survey of Irish periodicals as a whole. Irish cultural topics were discussed in most periodicals—the daily newspapers, the general weeklies, and the weeklies on special topics. A study of such periodicals demonstrates that the cultural ambience of the period provided both a working knowledge of the main narratives of early Irish literature and a skeletal patriotic history, illustrating that at the time one did not need to resort to scholarly journals or publications in the Irish language for such knowledge. Thus, the broad lines of the argument sketched above regarding the United Irishman are substantiated by a wider study of the periodical literature in Ireland in Joyce's youth. Of all the popular periodicals current, however, the coverage of Irish history and literature is most systematic and most extensive in the United Irishman, a point with implications for an assessment of how Joyce was positioned with respect to Irish citizens in general regarding knowledge about early Irish literature.

In the following discussion of Irish periodical literature I consider three

categories of periodicals: daily papers and their weekly counterparts, general reviews, and publications with a narrow topical focus.^[23] The format of daily newspapers at the turn of the century sets bounds on their treatment of Irish culture. Because the dailies were small (between four and eight pages) yet charged with providing all the news in an era when there were no other media such as radio and television to carry the burden, type is small and dense, and articles are typically short. There are few feature articles or surveys of general cultural and political topics. Such studies are reserved instead for the weeklies. Moreover, the treatment of Irish culture in the dailies is determined by political orientation; the Irish periodicals of this period held marked political positions that determined what they deemed newsworthy. The strong ideological bias of Irish journalism at the time, as with most European papers still today, means that events that are major news in one daily may receive scant if any coverage in another.

As a result there is very little news about Irish literature, history, language, or culture in the Ascendancy and Unionist dailies, for the coverage of these topics had political implications, as already mentioned. The Unionist papers differ among themselves in focus and in the breadth of their general coverage. The Irish Times of the period, for example, is oriented to sports, finance, and London news, while the Dublin Evening Mail has less sporting news and more general features, including a daily story, theater news, and sensational news. The Daily Express —for which

[23] I surveyed major Irish periodicals for the period 1900–1904, with a particular systematic focus on the reporting of Irish cultural news in the period between January and May 1902, using the treatment of two major Irish cultural events as an index: the events of the week 16–22 March, which was designated Irish Language Week by the leaders of the language movement and which included a large parade in Dublin on Sunday, 16 March; and the staging of Yeats's Cathleen ni Houlihan and A. E.'s Deirdre in April 1902 by the combined forces of the dramatic movement including the Fays' acting company, Inghinidhe na hÉireann, and two of the founders of the Irish Literary Theatre (Yeats and Augusta Gregory), a production that inaugurated the Irish National Theatre Society. Where this preliminary sampling indicated substantial coverage of Irish cultural material, I surveyed the periodical in question at greater length; in the case of some short-lived journals, I covered the entire run. I chose spring 1902 as the focus of research in part because the two important cultural events could be used as an index of comparison but also because Joyce was in Dublin and actively involved in Irish culture during this period. Thus, it was a time of his life in which Irish periodical literature would have affected him.

For a general survey of the press in Ireland, see Brown. Rose and O'Hanlon (xxii–xxiv) discuss Joyce's use of specific dailies in the construction of Ulysses .

Joyce wrote in 1902 and 1903 (JJ 2 108, 112, 138–39; cf. CW 84–140) and for which Gabriel Conroy writes in "The Dead" and is still writing in 1904 when the action of Ulysses takes place (7.307), despite all of Miss Ivors's criticism and his own resolution to journey "westward"—carries reports about all manner of Ascendancy societies as well as detailed news about the Protestant churches. Despite their shades of difference, these papers are united in the treatment of the Irish language movement and the Irish literary movement; on the whole where this movement is not consigned to silence, it is reported with contempt.^[24] Thus, for example, in the Evening Mail the 16 March 1902 demonstration of the Irish language movement is passed off with a scant, hostile paragraph:

That the Irish language movement is growing in strength and stature we are not concerned to deny. We can see, indeed, that under certain circumstances it might be made a movement with which every Irishman could sympathise. But unfortunately, under present conditions, we fear the Irish language campaign is only another side of the eternal political agitation with which this land is cursed. We are afraid it is impossible to deny that its yearning for the de-Anglicization of Ireland is not confined to the literary side of life, but that the political hostility to England which is the pulse of Nationalism is also the pulse of the language movement. It is Nationalist, not national, and we are inclined to regret the fact. If we could believe that yesterday's procession was not, after all, a political demonstration and that "God Save Ireland" was a pious aspiration rather than a fierce battle-shout, we would be heartily glad; but it would be unwise, we think, to accept the demonstration in this light. (17 Mar. 1902)

The Irish Times was most infamous among contemporaries for its treatment of Irish cultural subjects: not only did it suppress Irish topics in general, but when it spoke, it was hostile. In spring 1902, for example, the Times carried a series of letters criticizing the Irish language movement and the movement to teach Irish in the National Schools. This hostility was relieved only by letters from authors such as Douglas Hyde and T. W. Rolleston defending the language movement; even these rejoinders were carefully controlled, and the Times refused on at least one occasion to publish a letter by Hyde on the subject, a refusal that itself made news

[24] In this regard it is telling that in Ulysses George Russell will be able to arrange a puff in the Express for his projected volume of work by younger poets (9.302).

in the nationalist dailies of the period.^[25] The Times thus provided readers with no information about Irish literature and history per se and was even marginal in its coverage of such cultural events as Irish Language Week in March 1902 and the monster demonstration in Dublin on 16 March. Only half of a column was devoted to the topic in the Monday issue following the parade.

The nationalist dailies, by contrast, all treat the Irish language movement and the Irish literary revival as part of the ongoing news, yet they often do it in such ways that the movement is contained or even patronized. In Home Rule and Republican dailies and weeklies of the period, the coverage of Irish literary and linguistic questions is fairly broad but very shallow. The Freeman's Journal and the Weekly Freeman , of interest to Joyce scholars because Leopold Bloom is employed by the Freeman, are both Home Rule in their orientation and are typical of the daily newspapers and popular weeklies that were sympathetic to the language movement for political reasons. The Freeman's Journal, a large-format, eight-page daily varying in width between seven and nine columns, notes most of the significant aspects of the revival. The Gaelic League and other revival groups are covered systematically, if briefly, and the Gaelic Athletic Association finds a place in the paper's news as well, though in a less systematic fashion. Lectures on Irish literary and historical topics are reported, often in some detail. There are reviews of Irish plays and of plays produced by Anglo-Irish dramatic organizations, including the 1902 performances of the A. E.'s Deirdre and Yeats's Cathleen ni Houlihan . Such reviews can be quite enthusiastic. The events of Irish Language Week are covered well, including a full report of the extensive parade and rally of 16 March 1902. There is also a daily article entitled "Le h-aghaidh na nGaedhilgeoiridhe," 'For the Irish Enthusiasts', a feature that published a variety of types of texts in Irish, from wondertales to opinion columns, thus meeting one of the Irish language movement's goals to have some Irish published in every issue of a periodical; in the Freeman the Irish text is occasionally accompanied by an English translation.

Much the same pattern is found in the Weekly Freeman , a large-format, sixteen-page, seven-column weekly in two sections. As regular

[25] See, for example, the Irish Daily Independent of 12 February 1902, p. 2, col. 7. Hyde's letter was ultimately published in the February 1902 issue of An Claidheamh Soluis.

weekly features the Weekly Freeman has material about the Gaelic League and an article in Irish. There are serialized features as well. Thus, for example, throughout most of 1902 the Weekly Freeman printed installments of Douglas Hyde's edition of Raftery's poems, accompanied by an English translation of the material; this series was followed in 1903, the centenary of Emmet's execution, by a serialized biography of Robert Emmet. In addition there is topical news about the Irish revival as well as the occasional background article about issues pertaining to Irish history, literature, biography, and culture. We find, for example, a three-column article on the schools of ancient Ireland in the 1903 Saint Patrick's Day issue of the Weekly Freeman.

Nonetheless, in both the daily and weekly Freeman the reporting of Irish cultural materials is dwarfed by the presentation of the general news of the country and the world: Irish history and literature stand side by side with notices of suicides, murders, accidents; economic and trade information command more space; international news, such as coverage of the Boer War, takes precedence; political reporting of Parliament is emphasized; and greater attention is paid to such local news as Queen Victoria's daily activities during her 1900 visit to Ireland. Moreover, in the Weekly Freeman most Irish features are carried in the second section of the paper—the culture section containing articles aimed at women and children as well as the general readership. They are thus marked clearly as secondary in importance to the major political and commercial news in section one. The placement of these Irish literary and cultural materials defines them as out of the scope of politics; it is, of course, ironic to a modern reader to find this arrangement, knowing as we do that Irish cultural nationalism was the cornerstone of future Irish politics and that Standish O'Grady's 1899 prophecy was to come true: "We have now a literary movement, it is not very important; it will be followed by a political movement, that will not be very important; then must come a military movement, that will be important indeed" (quoted in Yeats, Autobiography 257).

Even when priority is given to Irish cultural issues, as it ostensibly is in the Saint Patrick's Day issues of the weekly, a similar analysis obtains. The Saint Patrick's Day issue is almost entirely given up to Irish cultural topics, and the cultural features precede the political and economic news. Nevertheless, by being segregated in a special holiday issue, an issue printed on green paper, Irish cultural topics are defined as outside the

main concerns of life; they are relegated to the status of a leisure activity. Much of the potential political effect of an article such as "The Makers of Fenianism," found in the 1902 Saint Patrick's Day issue of the Weekly Freeman , is muted and defused by the position of the article in the overall format of the periodical.

Thus, the Freeman , in its daily and weekly format, can be said to trivialize the Irish revival by placement, proportion, and juxtaposition of the materials pertaining to literary and cultural issues; the same is true of policies having to do with an Irish Ireland or Sinn Féin. Indeed, the Freeman was criticized by other periodicals at the time for precisely these tactics. The 12 April 1902 issue of the Leader charges, "The Freeman is an expert clipper from British papers, but it is very weak on the side of Irish news." The criticism of the Leader on 1 March 1902 is more specific: "The Freeman of Monday gives over a column report to the meeting of the Delegates of the St. Patrick's Eve Demonstration. Nearly the whole of the next column on the right is headed, 'Fashions of the Week,' and comprises a clipping from a British fashion paper. Oh, what a Press." Similar amusing juxtapositions can be noted from the Weekly Freeman. On 2 August 1902 the Irish cultural news shares an opening with "Horse-breeding in Ulster" and "Watering Flowering Plants in Pots," and on 6 September of the same year "The Orthography of the Irish Language" is adjacent to a column entitled "Certain Manures"; on 7 February 1903 the Gaelic League news is next to an article entitled "Swine Fever." It is hard to make much of a cultural revival that must compete for space in the second section of this paper with weekly articles on poultry and beekeeping, as well as the practical "Veterinary Answers," important as those topics were to the agrarian interests of the readers.

In addition, a restricted range of Irish literature is covered in the Freeman's Journal and the Weekly Freeman, and there is no systematic educative program related to Irish culture similar to that of the United Irishman . Though the weekly does carry Hyde's edition of Raftery in 1902, the references to Irish literature are generally to stories that have already become canonized in the contemporary cultural milieu—for example, the narratives about Deirdre or Diarmait and Grainne. There is little program of literary exposure and expansion; rather the Freeman reports on or alludes to Irish literature that has already become popularized in some way. In addition, reviews of Irish publications are limited, for such publications must compete with the entire range of publications in English let-

ters; as a result the space dedicated to Irish books and drama is dwarfed by the space allocated to mainstream theater and mainstream English literature. Authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle and English dramatic productions at the commercial theaters get the lion's share of attention in a publication like the Freeman's Journal . An ironic example of this pattern can be seen in the 2 April 1904 issue of the Weekly Freeman, which devotes almost a column on page one to the National Theatre Society's London performances of five plays by Yeats, Synge, and Colum: the society received scant coverage for its Irish performances of the same plays. It is the larger world of England that determines the hierarchy of values in the Freeman. In such ways, then, the Freeman's Journal and the Weekly Freeman define Irish literature as marginal while still reporting about it and presupposing it to a surprising extent; Irish literature is presented when it is in the news, but it is not valorized per se.

The patterns revealed by the coverage of Irish material in the Freeman are similar to those of the other nationalist dailies and weeklies. Like the Freeman , the Irish Daily Independent and Daily Nation , an eight-page, nine-column daily, covers most events having to do with the Irish revival and the language movement: lectures on such topics as Irish architecture of the early Christian period are summarized; there are announcements of the activities and meetings of groups such as the Feis Ceoil Association and the Gaelic League; public events, including the 16 March 1902 demonstration, are reported; a series contrasts the national movements in Ireland and other countries; and so forth.^[26] The Independent also meets the Gaelic League's ideal of publishing some text in Irish—if not daily, then several times a week—often reprinting articles from An Claidheamh Soluis, the weekly penny newspaper of the Gaelic League. Moreover, the Independent shows its sympathy to the language movement by publishing a weekly article entitled "The Irish Language Movement (From Information Supplied by the Gaelic League)," which surveys the most significant events of the week related to the language movement and includes commentary as well. The weekly published by the same press, the Illustrated Irish Weekly Independent and Nation , is similar, reprinting the column entitled "The Irish Language Movement" from the daily,

[26] The Independent was founded by Parnell after the Freeman's Journal withdrew its support from him following his marriage to Kitty O'Shea (Thornton, Allusions in "Ulysses" 266), though it rather quickly became associated with an anti-Parnellite position (Gifford 134, 327).

carrying news of the Gaelic Athletic Association and other organizations related to the Irish revival, and running background articles on Irish topics such as Saint Brendan. Yet we see the same pattern of trivialization of the Irish news by its positioning. In the Weekly Independent, for example, the Irish news may at times be found just before features entitled "The Farm" and "Veterinary Replies," suggesting that its interest is nonpolitical and rural. Paradoxically, also, by having the Gaelic League write the column entitled "The Irish Language Movement," the editorial policy reveals a program of delegation and containment: Irish news is primarily contained in a single weekly article, the writing of which is delegated elsewhere rather than becoming a task to which reportorial staff must be committed.^[27]

In summary, then, the nationalist dailies kept their readers informed of the Irish language movement and the Irish revival as a whole, and frequently they published articles in the Irish language. The allusions to Irish literary topics in the daily press presuppose widespread knowledge of Irish literature and Irish myth among the readers, but the dailies restrict consideration of Irish literature to established or canonized material. The format of these journals does not provide for a systematic educative function about Irish literature, nor do they cover marginal literary subject matter, thereby serving as primary source material for knowledge of literary topics.

The independent weeklies—that is, those unconnected with dailies—are more various in their treatment of the Irish revival and Irish literature and are more situated by their format and function in the culture to have an educative component and thus more apt to have served as sources of literary knowledge for James Joyce and others. These periodicals are generally small in format, rarely larger than 10"x18". They range from periodicals with specific subject content, such as cycling or gardening, to

[27] The Evening Telegraph, a Home Rule daily also published by the Freeman's Journal , is a large-format paper, between eight and ten columns, four pages on weekdays and eight on Saturday. Like the Freeman and the Independent , it too carries news of the Gaelic League, the Gaelic Athletic Association, and similar groups, and it gives a prominent place to news about Irish language events such as Irish Language Week in March 1902. The Telegraph also carries the daily article entitled "Le h-aghaidh na nGaedhilgeoiridhe." But this Irish news is swallowed up in the general coverage, and there is virtually no cultural news or literary news in the smaller weekday issues of the Telegraph at all.

more general publications, which might or might not have a particular political thrust.

The Leader stands as an example of a small-format weekly with a particular political perspective, addressing itself to a broad range of political and cultural concerns. The Leader , a nationalist publication founded by D. P. Moran, was begun in 1900; its sixteen small-format (8.5"x13"), pages of articles are encased in an advertising supplement of eight additional pages. The periodical's issues are divided roughly in two, with an extensive commentary on current events by the editor preceding a series of signed articles on particular topics. The Leader is more radical in its politics than are most of the weeklies, and it approaches the United Irishman in its political orientation, though a greater moral conservatism is plain throughout; it was very influential among the undergraduates of University College, with Joyce one of the few to resist its influence.^[28] The publication promotes an "Irish Ireland" program and actively supports the language movement, though it lacks the coherent political program of Arthur Griffith's publication. Essentially political commentary, often of a polemical sort, with highly charged rhetoric in the editor's commentary, the magazine focused on politics; Manganiello has characterized its policies as "almost entirely negative" (25). The editor enjoyed controversy, as indicated, for example, by the publication on 2 May 1904 of Osborn Bergin's acidic review of Douglas Hyde's prize essay published by the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language; Bergin intimated that Hyde's command of Irish was less than adequate, and the review occasioned a defense of Hyde by Eleanor Hull on 23 May and an another acerbic response by Bergin, then a relatively young man, on 6 June. It was Moran who led the sloganeering against "West Britons" and "shoneens" in Ireland. Although Joyce disagreed with many of its positions, he read the Leader and used its materials: disagreement did not deter him from using the publication as a source for his work.^[29]

The subtitle of the Leader is "A Review of Current Affairs, Politics, Literature, Art and Industry," but the space devoted to literary questions is restricted, and the periodical is primarily political in its orientation. An

[28] Manganiello (24–25, 116–18, 124) discusses the political views of the Leader.

[29] Manganiello (117–18) gives an example of how material from the Leader lies behind the interchange between Bloom and the Citizen.

article in Irish on a topic of current interest is a weekly feature. There are reviews of Irish theater and regular announcements of the publication of new books on Irish literature and language, but there are few sustained articles on Irish literary topics and there is no attempt at a systematic educative program like that of the United Irishman. Nonetheless, some material about Irish culture is included; in 1902, for example, the Leader provided its readers with, among other things, a series of articles about traditional Irish singing, a review of a lecture on Celtic ornament (15 Mar.), articles debating the direction of modern drama in Irish and English, articles on the Feis Ceoil, an article on Eoghan Ruadh O'Sullivan (10 May), articles on Irish poetic composition (31 May, 7 June, 28 June, 12 July), a series of articles on Irish prose composition, a concerted campaign against the Stage Irishman, and an overview of Irish literature in 1902 (6 Dec.).

Of the small-format periodicals, Standish O'Grady's All Ireland Review comes the closest to the United Irishman in the volume of its coverage of early Irish literature. The publication began on 6 January 1900 as an eight-page, two-column magazine; its paper covers were filled with advertisements. It was considered by many the organ of the Irish literary revival and is much more a literary and cultural journal than a political one, though many issues with broad political implications are discussed. There are regular reviews of Irish books and the theatrical productions of the Irish dramatic movement; Irish musical events are publicized and reviewed; and contributors to the periodical include Yeats, Gregory, A. E., and other members of the literary revival. A weekly article gives simple instruction in the Irish language.

O'Grady published weekly features pertaining to early Irish literature and history as well. Initially O'Grady serialized his own retelling of Táin Bá Cúailnge, which appeared under the title "In the Gates of the North," but he provided more substantive material also, such as his serialization of the initial segments of the Annals of the Four Masters to A.D. 432 accompanied by topographical notes, which began on 2 March 1901 and continued to the middle of 1902. In spring 1900, under the heading "Recent Translations from Gaelic," T. W. Rolleston discussed early Irish stories in Standish Hayes O'Grady's Silva Gadelica, Kuno Meyer's Voyage of Bran , Eleanor Hull's Cuchullin Saga , and the Irish Texts Society's publication of The Feast of Bricriu ; Rolleston also included in his survey folklore materials by Jeremiah Curtin and William Larminie, George Si-

gerson's Bards of the Gael and Gall , and Douglas Hyde's translations of "The Adventures of the Lad of the Ferule" and "The Adventures of the Sons of the King of Norway," both published by the Irish Texts Society. Other summaries of early Irish stories are found scattered throughout the run, such as the summaries of The Wooing of Etain and Cophur in dá Muccida (The Story of the Two Swineherds) (6 Oct. 1900), the stories of Cliodna and Rudraige (6 Apr. 1901), The Adventures of Cormac in the Land of Promise (6 Apr. 1901), and tales of lake eruptions (25 May 1901). In the first issue of 1902 O'Grady began the serialization of Whitley Stokes's translation of The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel , reprinting it from Revue celtique but with the "nude-antique" elements expunged (cf. 8 Feb. 1902, 433); this series continued until 19 July 1902. Windisch's translation of The Story of Mac Datho's Pig was reprinted from Irische Texte in the issue of 20 December 1902. Beginning 8 November 1902, a sustained series on the gods of Ireland discusses material in The Book of Invasions, as well as specific figures including the Dagda, MacCecht, Anu, the sons of Tuirenn, Oengus, Bodb Derg, Lug, Midir, the Morrigan, Macha, Manannan, Fintan, Diancecht, and others. There is also other material about mythic figures, including Cesair (30 Mar. 1901), the Dagda (27 Apr. 1901), MacColl, MacCecht, and MacGreine (7 Sept. 1901), and the mythical invaders of Ireland (18 and 25 May 1901). The Irish festivals are discussed with articles on Beltaine (4 Jan. 1902) and Lugnasad (14 Sept. 1901). In addition O'Grady provides various critical discussions of early Irish literature, stressing the interlacing of history and myth in Irish literature (18 Aug. 1900, 2 Mar. 1901, 16 Mar. 1901, 4 May 1901) and comparing Irish tradition to the Greek in this regard. An extract from D'Alton's History of Ireland was published on 29 November 1902. The periodical carries the text of a lecture by Sigerson entitled "The Basis of Irish Myths" (25 May 1901), underscoring the mythopoeic imagination of the Irish, as well as a lecture on Irish poetry in the same issue that contains important early Irish poems. O'Grady's weekly also provides material about Irish prosody (e.g., 9 Aug. 1902).

In addition to discussions and summaries of early Irish literature, Modern Irish folklore, particularly fairy lore, is discussed or summarized frequently. Other cultural material is provided as well, including material about Irish costume (18 Aug. 1900). Irish history has a regular place in O'Grady's periodical. Under the title "The Spaniards in Ireland" a systematic account of seventeenth-century Irish history is given beginning in

August 1900 and continuing piecemeal for most of a year. We find material about Irish saints (14 Dec. 1901), and a series questioning the traditions about Saint Patrick is reprinted from Heinrich Zimmer's Celtic Church in Great Britain and Ireland (beginning 15 Nov. 1902). Particulars of the Irish language are discussed including the Irish dual (14 Dec. 1901), and one series discusses cognates to Irish words in other Indo-European languages (beginning 16 Mar. 1901).

The range and volume of materials presented by O'Grady are impressive, but the coverage of such topics in the All Ireland Review is more dilute and less systematic than is the presentation of corresponding material in the United Irishman . This difference is apparent in O'Grady's tendency to print fictionalized retellings such as "In the Gates of the North" rather than more straightforward presentations such as Best's extensive summaries with bibliographical apparatus in the United Irishman . Moreover, when O'Grady does set out to summarize or publish scholarly material, the treatment is less thorough. The format of the All Ireland Review is partly responsible for the restrictions in its literary materials, for the small format of the periodical (eight pages of 10"×14.75"), the large print (two columns of nine words per line), and the wide leading between lines (eighty-six lines per page) mean that the contents of any one issue are quite limited. It follows that there is a corresponding limitation on the total output of the paper with respect to any one topic such as early Irish literature. Thus, even in the case of a scholarly publication, such as the reprinting of Stokes's translation of The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel , publication must be protracted over a period of seven months in order to fit the text within the scope of interests represented in the periodical as a whole. This compares with the 6600-word detailed summary of the same tale published in three weeks in the United Irishman in Best's "Bardic Tales" series, made possible by the dense format and larger size of that publication. The systematic educative purpose of O'Grady's periodical likewise suffers in comparison to that of the United Irishman ; again the publication of Da Derga's Hostel is instructive, for in the same time that O'Grady devotes to this important story, the United Irishman was able to survey and summarize almost two dozen central stories of early Irish literature, thus giving its readers a much broader and more systematic exposure to the range of early Irish literature.

The political tenor of O'Grady's weekly is also much more conservative than is that of the United Irishman . O'Grady appeals to the Ascendancy in various ways. In a series called "Mr. Goodenough," he focuses on the land question, expressing confidence in the landed gentry to see the light and reform their practice voluntarily; he satirizes rather than execrates the position of the landlords. O'Grady also stays strictly loyalist, in 1900 signing an open letter to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her visit to Ireland "your loving subject"—this at a time when the United Irishman was supporting a boycott of the Queen's visit. Though the journal presented interesting materials pertaining to early Irish history and literature—materials that Joyce might have used, such as the articles on the Spaniards in Ireland—the overall appeal of O'Grady's periodical to Joyce would have been limited.

Another periodical not unlike O'Grady's is Dana , a small (5.25"×8.25"), thirty-two-page monthly begun in May 1904 by W. K. Magee (John Eglinton) and Frederick Ryan that ran until April 1905. Magee figures in the library episode of Ulysses , where there is ironic byplay about his having taken the "poetic" pseudonym of John Eglinton; in the discussion about Hamlet , prefiguring the techniques of the Nighttown episode, the text reads: "MAGEEGLINJOHN: Names! What's in a name?" (9.900–901). The episode also refers overtly to the goddess Danu (Dana) (9.376) and to the periodical itself (9.322, 9.1081), which was named after the goddess. The majority of the young men conversing in the library episode are associated with Dana , either as editor or as contributors; the latter include Magee himself, T. W. Lyster, and A. E., as well as Oliver St. John Gogarty (as Mulligan) and Joyce (as Stephen). Thus, the company gathered is part of a certain intellectual niche in contemporary Dublin associated with the program and views of Dana .

The particular interest of this periodical is literature, as its inaugural statement makes clear: "Of the various forms which patriotic ambition takes in the minds of Irishmen at the present time, perhaps the most generally favoured and the least impracticable, is a zeal for the promotion of a national literature" (May 1904). Though Joyce left Ireland soon after the publication was begun, he continued to be interested (however ironically that interest is expressed) in it and its editors once he was abroad, as his correspondence indicates (e.g., Letters 2: 208–9), in part because Dana published his poem "My love is in a light attire" in August 1904.

In 1920 Dana was part of Joyce's library left behind in Trieste when he moved to Paris (Ellmann, Consciousness of Joyce 105);^[30] articles in Dana therefore contributed to Joyce's thinking about various topics. In the January 1905 issue an article by John Eglinton, "The Island of Saints," may have provided source material for Joyce's Trieste lectures in 1907, and the February 1905 issue has an article on Merriman that appeared as The Midnight Court was being concurrently published by Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie.The Midnight Court is summarized carefully and described as "the most tasteful composition in modern Irish," lacking "pessimistic alienation from the joy of life"; the form is identified as "the mediaeval Aisling " (Feb. 1905, 297–99). Had Joyce not known Merriman's text from other sources, the Dana article would have served his purposes in Ulysses .

There are also reviews of the first two volumes of Ériu as well as the supplementary volume containing the edition of the Yellow Book of Lecan text of Táin Bó Cúailnge edited by John Strachan and J. G. O'Keeffe (Sept. 1904 and Mar. 1905); Ériu is recommended as "interesting to anyone who without knowing the language wishes to know something of Celtic literature in its original shape and native garb" (Sept. 1904, 156). A reader of this issue would have here clear notice that the refractions of the Irish revival diverged from the medieval originals. The September 1904 issue of Dana also includes a review of Eleanor Knott's Pagan Ireland .

Most of the Irish weeklies are specialized in their content orientation and, because of their focus, carry little information about the Irish literary revival or Irish literature. The Irish Field and Gentleman's Gazette , for example, restricts its purview to such topics as horses and hounds, coursing, shooting, hunting, racing, rugby, and motoring, as well as ancillary news related to the audience—society news. Other specialty weeklies carry materials related to Irish literature and the Irish revival in a marginal capacity. Here we must place the Irish Catholic , a weekly with the format of a daily paper (20.5" × 24", eight pages, eight columns per page). Most of the news concerns Rome, Irish ecclesiastics, and world news with specific interest to Catholics. But Irish literary topics find a

[30] Manganiello (38) discusses Joyce's views on Dana and its political positions.

place when they intersect with Catholic interests: thus, the lectures by the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S.J., on such topics as "The Story of Irish Speech" (15 Mar. 1902) and "Language and Nationality" (29 Mar. 1902) are reported in the periodical. In the same way, since Irish Language Week and the demonstration on 16 March 1902 were supported by various Catholic groups including the Christian Brothers, these events are included in the news of the weekly. Naturally, the Irish Catholic also includes articles about Saint Patrick and other medieval saints. This periodical is of interest less as a source for Joyce, who by temperament would scarcely have been a regular reader, than as an index of the extent to which a modicum of knowledge about Irish literature and history was widespread throughout the Catholic population of Ireland, even the most conservative.

The Irish Homestead serves as another example of a specialized weekly with a narrow content orientation that nonetheless disseminated material about the Irish revival. The Homestead was the organ of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society; as such, it is almost rigorously apolitical in the narrow sense of the word, and it has such regular features as "Seasonable Farm Notes," "Creamery Management," and "Poultry Notes." A. E. assumed the editorship of this periodical in 1906, but even before this period he and others of the literary revival were frequent contributors. The agricultural articles are placed first in the Irish Homestead , with the second half of the periodical having more general domestic appeal. It is here we find a weekly short story; the literary interests of the Homestead are banal, and the weekly story is of the most sentimental sort. In 1904 A. E. suggested that Joyce write a story for the Homestead, thus giving the idea for Dubliners to Joyce, but it is no wonder that Joyce was unable to place more than three of his short stories ("The Sisters," "Eveline," and "After the Race") with the publication; indeed, given the tone of most stories published by the Homestead , it is surprising that he should have been published at all in this forum.^[31]

[31] "The Sisters" appears in the 13 August 1904 issue, and Joyce signed it "Stephen Daedalus" because he was ashamed to publish in the journal. Joyce was asked not to submit other stories because readers had complained about his work. See JJ 2 163–64 for these events. In Ulysses Stephen passes one copy of Deasy's letter to A. E. for publication in the Homestead , referring mentally to it as "the pigs' paper" (9.321); thus, Stephen's concern about becoming known as the "bullockbefriending" bard is related to Joyce's own embarrassment about publishing in this agricultural journal.

Yet even this publication tips its hat to the Irish language movement with a weekly literary piece in Irish that is accompanied by an English translation. Through this feature readers of the magazine would have been exposed to poems from Hyde's Love Songs of Connacht , poems from the dindsenchas^[*] , poems by Keating, and so forth; in some cases (e.g., 1 Feb. 1902) there are brief discussions of Irish metrics and other general cultural topics. The imagery of the Irish material is often typical of the tradition, including, for example, personifications of Ireland as woman, sacred well imagery, and the like. The Christmas supplement to the periodical also carries stories, poems, and drawings by members of the Anglo-Irish literary revival such as Augusta Gregory, W. B. Yeats, Douglas Hyde, and A. E. Overall the Homestead conveys an aura of timeless rural tranquility and well-being, assiduously avoiding politics and even simple cultural developments. Though the publication had only the scantest interest in the literary and cultural developments of the period—for example, not even mentioning the productions of the Irish National Theatre Society in 1902—it nevertheless offered its readers a minimal exposure to Irish literature and the Irish language, though the level on which these topics are incorporated would not suffice for any substantive knowledge.

Among the specialty periodicals of the time are also the publications of the Gaelic League: the weekly penny newspaper Claidheamh Soluis and the monthly Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge, The Gaelic Journal , a more "high-class" literary magazine (United Irishman 24 Nov. 1900). Paradoxically, these periodicals offer little more systematic education about Irish literature and history than do the periodicals already discussed, but for a different reason: the Gaelic League publications are too close to the topics to give a broad overview. In addition, it is language per se that engages the interest of the League rather than literature or history. These periodicals were widely read among nationalists, and notices of the issues appear regularly in the United Irishman .

The Dublin Penny Journal , subtitled "a Magazine of Art, Archaeology, Literature, and Science," is another specialty weekly in small format (9.5"× 12") that provided its readers with information about Irish culture; its articles contain a good deal of historical information, particularly about Dublin. It was short-lived, running from 5 April 1902 to 25 March 1905, but during this period it printed a number of interesting series, in-

cluding the long-running (5 Apr.–20 Sept. 1901) series entitled "The History and Antiquities of Dublin," a reprinting of materials from Walter Harris's history of the same title. Series on Fenian lore and a reprinting of materials by John O'Donovan, "Origins and Meanings of Irish Family Names," in 1902 are also noteworthy. The antiquarian interest of the journal focuses primarily on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but there are occasional pieces on medieval Ireland as well, including, for example, the 12 April 1902 article "Ancient Beverages of Ireland" or the 3 May 1902 article "Ancient Irish Society," which gives an adequate introduction to the familial, tribal, and hierarchical aspects of the culture. The journal contains a fair amount of information about placelore, particularly Dublin placelore; it is interesting to find that Chapelizod is discussed in particular (17 May and 31 May 1902). There are informative articles 253.160 about Irish calendar customs, such as the article on May Day (Beltaine) on 31 May 1902, as well as articles about the Irish gods (31 May 1902) and numerous articles about the stories and placelore of the Finn Cycle (beginning June 1902). Robert Adams (141–42) has argued that Joyce used Harris rather than the annals in Thom's Directory for the reference to the beaching of turlehyde whales in Dublin harbor (U 3.303–6); inasmuch as the key words of Harris's text on which Adams's argument rests also appear in the Dublin Penny Journal reprinting, it is possible that Joyce is indebted to the periodical for his reading of Harris and, if so, that he would have known other articles as well.

This survey of the periodical literature of Ireland at the turn of the century indicates that there was a general awareness of Irish cultural nationalism among the population, particularly the Catholic nationalist population, and with it a relatively high level of knowledge about early Irish literature and history. Certain aspects of the literature had become canonical in Ireland. The main lines of a patriotic history and an Irish pseudohistory based on The Book of Invasions were also widely presumed. Moreover, the popular press extended the boundaries of that common knowledge with occasional features on Irish prosody and literary pieces that reinforced traditional Irish imagery, including rose imagery, otherworld imagery, and Sovereignty imagery. In short, the principal features of the Irish substructure of Ulysses were common knowledge in the Irish milieu that Joyce was part of at the beginning of the century, and most of the elements traced in this book would have been familiar to the public

at large.^[32] Yet even within a populace with a significant fund of common knowledge about Irish literary tradition, in choosing to be a regular reader of the United Irishman , Joyce would have been conspicuous among nonspecialists for his interest in and knowledge of Irish literature and history. No other periodical or popular source has a comparable range and depth of coverage of Irish cultural topics, nor does any have a similar educative program. Joyce preferred to read the Irish weekly most calculated to give him a broad, systematic, and sympathetic presentation of Irish history and literature. Thus, the view of Joyce as an author anti-pathetical to the Irish cultural revival and uninterested in Irish tradition or mythos must be reevaluated; Joyce situated himself in the cultural spectrum in such a way that he was among the best informed of those who used popular vehicles to instruct themselves about Irish literary and historical tradition.