Irish Mythology, Language, and History in Dubliners: A Perspective on Irelands

National Identity
Eric Patterson
If Joyce, in Dubliners, is offering a moral history of his countrymen, then he is
also implicitly offering his perspective regarding who they are as a nation, for
identity can hardly be separated from collective morality. However, Joyce, along
with his literary and political contemporaries, did not exist in either a vacuum or a
stasis and one can only rightly view Joyces unique perspective in the context of his
times. The first three decades of Joyces life were witness to an intense revival of
nationalism, to various movements towards political autonomy, and to efforts by
leading men and women of Irish society to redefine a sense of national identity.
Scholars of both Joyce and Irish mythology have previously described the
perceived linkage between those two fields of study. However, those who have
written about this intersection do not seem to have attempted to discern what Joyce
is saying, by way of these created linkages, about the Irish at large and about
Dubliners in particular. While many of Joyces contemporaries were resurrecting an
awareness of bold and glorious mythological heroes in support of their political
vision for the early 20th century, Joyce very deliberately incorporated mythological
themes of mainly darkness and death into his texts. This paper will explore exactly
that point; that is, not just how Joyce incorporated elements of mythology into
Dubliners, and especially into The Dead, and how he very carefully reinforced his
recurring themes of paralysis, frustration, and darkness, but how in doing so he
offered his own vision for what he saw as a realistic Irish national identity.

Dubliners and Gaelic/Irish Words

There are numerous places in Dubliners where Joyce drew upon the roots of
old Gaelic or Irish words, and certain mythological themes associated with those
words, to reinforce his well-known recurring messages of modernism and realism.
Joyces brother, Stanislaus, assures us the James did indeed study the Irish
language while at University College, that he had, [particular] interest in local
place-names, especially those of places where the Joyce family lived, and that he
read from such nationalistic luminaries as Lady Gregory. 1 Kenneth Nilsen, in Down
Among the Dead: Elements of Irish Language and Mythology in James Joyces
Dubliners, examines the Irish roots in Joyces English words. Specifically, he notes
that Joyce subtly employs a number of surnames and place names, particularly
those having to do with death or darkness. 2 Citing Brendan O Hehirs A Gaelic
Lexicon for Finnegans Wake, Nilsen tells us that while Joyce employed more than
331 pages worth of Gaelic words or phrases in that text, he used perhaps 15 pages
of Gaelic words in Ulysses and only 22 individual Gaelic listings in Dubliners.3 Nilsen
explains that this reduced reliance upon actual Gaelic by Joyce in Dubliners is to be
expected, as it
conforms perfectly to the naturalistic style of these stories. Joyce has
his Dubliners use only words and phrases that real Dubliners would
use[but]he still had open to him the wide range of Irish surnames
and place-names. Joyce made use of surnames and, to a lesser extent,
1
Kenneth Nilsen, Down among the Dead: Elements of Irish Language and Mythology
in James Joyces Dubliners, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies Volume 12 (June 1986): 2324.

Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 23.

3
Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 24.

place-names to reinforce his theme of a city and people in the grip of

paralysis.4
Thus, we must look more closely at Joyces technique in Dubliners to tease
out hidden clues. For example, there are two characters in this book who have a
variation of the name Dunn; Tizzie Dunn, in Eveline, and the railway porter, Mr.
Dunne, in A Painful Case. In the former case, it is Tizzie Dunn, amongst all the
cited childhood friends, who has died at a young age, and in the latter, it is Mr.
Dunne who was the interviewed witness of Mrs. Sinicos apparent suicide by train.
As Nilsen shows us, the English word brown translates to donn in Irish. Donn, in
Gaelic, is the name of the Brown One, or the Dark One, and is the formal name of
the mythological Irish god of the dead. The modern anglicized version of Donn is
Dunn, or, alternatively, Dunne. Thus, Tizzie is dead because her name has made it
so, and it was, essentially, death himself who witnessed the final moments of Mrs.
Sinico.5
A further example from A Painful Case comes from the main character
himself, Mr. Duffy. Duffy stems from the Irish root name ODubhthaigh, which
means the descendant of Dubthach, or the black one. Niles also notes that Duffy
lives in Chapelizod, to the west of Dublin. Presumably, Joyce could have placed
Duffys abode anywhere in the area. However, in Irish mythology, the land of the
dead lay to the west.6

4
5

Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 24.

Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 27.

6
Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 28.

A final general example comes from Clay. This story occurs on Hallow Eve,
itself significant as the night when, according to Irish pagan beliefs, the living and
the dead walk the earth together. The main character struggles valiantly to get to
the household of the Joe Donnelly family. Donnelly, from the Irish ODonnghaile, has
as its Gaelic root meaning brown strength, or strong death. 7 Of course, this is the
linguistic prelude to Marias twice reaching, blindfolded, into the pot of clay, which
in that era was a superstitious premonition of an early death.
The Dead and The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel
The deepest and most interesting intersection between Dubliners and Irish
mythology occurs within the longer context of The Dead. To summarize for the
purposes of creating a baseline for comparison, The Dead is the story of Gabriel
Conroy, an apparently successful author and professor of at least middle class
status. Throughout the course of the story, Gabriel unwittingly commits a number
of social faux pas which culminate, at the end of the evening, in the unexpected and
complete destruction of his sense of success and happiness. On the way to this
bitter end, Gabriel is oblivious to his impending doom. By the end, he has fully
realized his own failures, as well as how all life is totally and constantly surrounded
by, even framed and defined by, death. These are all classic themes in Dubliners,
made all the more ironic in that Gabriel stands in stark contrast to all of Joyces
previous characters who are less educated, less successful, and less aware of their
social context. If anyone might have been happy and successful in Dubliners, it
might have been Gabriel. His failure is thus all the more unexpected and
noteworthy.
7
Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 29.

Of the Irish epic tales from the Mythological cycle, The Destruction of Da Derga's
Hostel [hereafter Da Dergas Hostel] is a story of notable eloquence and detail. The
plot of the story turns upon the disasters that follow the violation of various taboos,
or geasa, which were laid upon the unwitting King, Conaire Mor. Conaire, the High
King of Ireland, is the son of Mess Buachalla, a descendant of the noted
mythological beauty Etain, and Nemglan, a mysterious bird god of presumably
Tuatha de Danaan roots. It was Nemglan, his father, who laid various geasa upon
Conaire before his birth. These eight geasa consisted of the following:
Thou shalt not go righthandwise round Tara and lefthandwise round Bregia.
The evil-beasts of Cerna must not be hunted by thee.
And thou shalt not go out every ninth night beyond Tara.
Thou shalt not sleep in a house from which firelight is manifest outside, after
sunset, and in which light is manifest from without.
And three Reds shall not go before thee to Red's house.
And no rapine shall be wrought in thy reign.
And after sunset a company of one woman or one man shall not enter the house
in which thou art.
And thou shalt not settle the quarrel of thy two thralls. 8
As was usual in that time, Conaire was fostered out to a nobleman, Desa, and
thus gained three foster brothers: Fer Lee, Fer Gar, and Fer Rogan. Years later in
his early manhood, and following the death of his foster father, Conaire chases a
group of birds overland with his chariot. One of the birds reveals himself to Conaire
as his father, Nemglan, who gives the youth clues about fulfilling certain prophecies
which will put him in position to become the next High King. However, after

8
The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel, date unknown, Fordham University Medieval
Sourcebook, http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/1100derga.asp (accessed July 5, 2014).

becoming High King, the unsuspecting violation of Nemglans geasa eventually

leads Conaire to his doom at the hands of his own foster brothers. 9
Before that occurs, though, Conaire proves himself to be a capable ruler. The
reign of Conaire is described as one of the most peaceful and blessed of early
Ireland. He was apparently a good king and his subjects enjoyed his reign, with the
exception of two of his subjects who routinely made war upon each other. Conaire
set out upon a tour of his kingdom, accompanied by an entourage, in order to make
peace between these two. Thus, he violated his first geis, Thou shalt not settle the
quarrel of thy two thralls.10 Consequently, the chain of destruction had been set in
motion, and, on their return to Tara, Conaire and his band witnessed apocalyptic
visions of the Irish countryside in the throes of fire and destruction. Put off by these
visions, they detoured away from Tara, towards Leinster and Da Dergas hostel,
violating several other geasa on the way. Most notably, on the road to their
destination they observed three red warriors riding ahead of them. Conaire sent out
a messenger to overtake them. Making three such attempts, the messenger and
Conaires party apparently suffered from some magical sense of paralysis and were
unable to either overtake or dissuade the red riders from proceeding ahead of them.
Thus, another geis is broken, as an interpretation of Da Dergas name can also
mean The Red.
In the meantime, Conaires three foster brothers from his youth, who had been
exiled by him due to their crimes against society, have joined forces with an English
9
Peter Ellis, A Dictionary of Irish Mythology (London: Constable and Company, Ltd,
1987), 64-65.

10
The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel.

raider named Ingcell. Having raided Ingcells fathers kingdom in England and
killed the entire noble family, the combined force of raiders [English] and reavers
[Irish] now proceed to the south of Ireland. They land outside of the area of Da
Dergas hostel, in what is now Dublin, and scout the area thoroughly. Settling upon
a plan of attack, a ferocious battle ensues in which most of Conaires party is forced
away or killed. Conaire is killed and decapitated, but his head continues to
converse for some time after his demise.11
The similarity of these various geasa to Gabriels social sins, along with the
alignment of key themes from Da Dergas Hostel, create sufficient points of
coincidence that leading scholars express strong confidence that Joyce based The
Dead, at least in part, upon this mythological tale. As stated by Nilsen, The note
of impending doom which runs through The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel
corresponds nicely to the themes of paralysis and death which pervade all the
stories in Dubliners.12 To which, I would offer that this observation is most true with
respect to The Dead, as an astute reader of Dubliners would note, by this last
story, that things are going entirely too well, relatively speaking, for Gabriel and
that a great downfall is imminent. Kelleher, in his Irish History and Mythology in
James Joyces The Dead, puts it thus: The Dead contains
strong, though incomplete references to the Old Irish saga, Togail
Bruidhne Da Derga, The Destruction of Da Dergas Hosteleveryone of
course knows that Joyce was fond of weaving into his work parallels
with myth, saga, and epic. It is, however, a mistake to assume, when
such a parallel is identified, that is must be complete. It rarely is.
Even Ulysses does not reflect the entirety of the Odyssey. The
11
The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel.

12
Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 25.

shadowy similarity between Gabriel Conroy and Conaire Mar is enough

for Joyces purposes which by their very nature must be suggestive
rather than explicit.13
As we begin to explore more specific examples of analog and alignment,
Kelleher refines his own characterization of the obscure parallel between Gabriel
and Conaire by drawing upon the opening scene from The Dead. After Gabriels
arrival, he vainly attempts to strike up a friendly conversation with the caretakers
daughter, Lily. She queries him, Is it snowing again, Mr. Conroy? 14 She does this
while using the accent of Dublins lower class, pronouncing Gabriels last name with
three rather than two syllables: Connery rather than Conroy. She had known
Gabriel most of her life, so this pronunciation mistake by Lily was undoubtedly
volitional on the part of Joyce. As Kelleher points out, Conroy derives from the Irish
name Cu Roi; Connery, however, as Lily pronounces it, derives directly from the
quite different Conaire.15 Thus, from the very beginning Joyce has drawn a straight
literary line from the mythical Conaire Mor to the fictional Gabriel Conroy.
Shortly thereafter in the storyline of The Dead, Joyce introduces Mr. Bartell
DArcy. Not only have literary scholars pointed out that this character is drawn from
a real and hesitating singer of the Dublin scene of Joyces time, but we here again
have another mythological allusion by Joyce. Nilsen demonstrates that DArcy is
derived from the Irish name ODorchaidhe, or The Dark One. 16 This is apropos
13
John Kelleher, Irish History and Mythology in James Joyces The Dead, The Review
of Politics 27 (July 1965): 419 and 421.

14
15

James Joyce, Dubliners (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), 177.

Kelleher, Irish History and Mythology, 419.

16
Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 29.

from Joyces perspective, given that it is Mr. DArcy who puts Gretta on her path of
dark contemplation. There is, however, further historical, if not mythological,
allusion embedded within this scene by Joyce. Mr. DArcys song of that evening,
and Michael Fureys song of long ago, is The Lass of Aughrim. The reference to
Aughrim must have been carefully crafted by Joyce, as it was the scene of a terrible
battle which was one of the final losses to Cromwell. It took place in 1691with
the defeat of the last Irish army that took the field. After Aughrim, there was only
the last defense of Limerick, then the final surrender, the broken treaty, and the
subjugation of the Irish.17 So, Joyce has now, with this scene of the Dark One
singing a song of Irish defeat, symbolically placed Gabriel but one step away from
destruction at the hands of a family member, to be accomplished by the carriage
ride to the Gresham Hotel.
Continuing with the brown/death symbolism from earlier stories in Dubliners,
we have the lone Protestant in attendance at the party, Mr. Browne. In an almost
over-the-top reference as the party is ending and the guests are departing, we have
the following:
Close the door, somebody. Mrs. Malins will get her death of the cold.
Browne is out there, Aunt Kate, said Mary Jane. Browne is
everywhere, said Aunt Kate, lowering her voice. 18
From the opening scene as the Conroys arrive at 15 Usher Island, until the
final scene with Gabriel and Gretta in the room at the Gresham Hotel, Gabriels
various social faux pas build towards the unexpected revelation by Gretta which
essentially destroys her husbands sense of self. This string of sins on the part of
17
Nilsen, Down among the Dead, 30, and Kelleher, 427.

18
Joyce, Dubliners, 206.

Gabriel throughout the evening bear more than a faint resemblance to Conaires
broken geasa in Der Dergas Hostel. Both stories use these indiscretions to build
towards the inevitable disastrous outcome. As stated by ORahilly,
King Conaire is an innocent victim of relentless fate. His unintentional
violations of his gesa [sic] imposed on him are but so many portents of
his impending doom, and he fittingly travels, not to any terrestrial
place, but to the house of Death itself, whither all men repair when
they die.19
Put more simply and directly by Joyce, but with an equal sense of impending doom,
Gabriel states to Lily in reference to the storm, I think that were in for a night of
it.20
There are, I offer, three such parallel faux pas/geis between The Dead and
Da Dergas Hostel which are the most apparent and convincing. First, it can be
deduced that the Conroys path from their home to the party break[s] Conaires
tabu against going righthandwise [sic] round Tara and lefthandwise [sic] round Mag
Breg, for he [Gabriel] would pass Bray Road in Stillorgan on his left and Tara Street
on his right.21 Joyce could have had his characters reside at any possible and
suitable Dublin address, thus putting them into a position to take any possible route
from their residence to the party. In choosing the points that he did, and we get a
sense from his series of letters to his brother Stanislaus that he was very careful
and deliberate in his use of Dublin street maps, Joyce put Gabriel into a position
whereby he could not have rationally avoided this particular geographical
19
T.F. ORahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology (Dublin: Dublin Institute for
Advanced Studies, 1971), 130.

20

Joyce, Dubliners, 177.

21
Kelleher, Irish History and Mythology, 421.

10

coincidence. Further, describing to his Aunt Kate their ride to the party, Gabriel
mentions, the east wind blowing in after we passed Merion. Very jolly it was.
Gretta caught a dreadful cold.22 In Da Dergas Hostel, it was from Merrion Strand,
the exact same location referenced by Gabriel, that the reavers launched their
attack.23
Next, we have the physical description given to us of Da Dergas hostel when
compared to the known architecture of the Gresham hotel of that era. Various
points of information in Da Dergas Hostel tell us that it had nine doors equally
spaced around its perimeter.24 As Kellehan informs us, the Gresham Hotel of
that period would suit admirably as a surrogateit was red brick [in reference to
Conaires geis, the house of red]; there were eight windows and a single door on the
street level [thus, nine portals in total].25 Recall Conaires geis to the effect that he
must not allow three reds to go before him to a house of red. To locate a red brick
hotel with nine floor-level portals apparently would have taken some work on
Joyces part, as Kelleher assures us that of comparable hotels, it [the Gresham] was
by no means nearest to Ushers Island.26

22
23

Joyce, Dubliners, 180.

Kelleher, Irish History and Mythology, 423.

24
25

The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel.

Kelleher, Irish History and Mythology, 422.

26
Kelleher, Irish History and Mythology, 422.

11

Most notably, perhaps, is the odd scene following the Conroys entry into the
hotel room. Joyce is very careful to describe the lighting and sources of
illumination.
The porter pointed to the tap of the electric-light and began a muttered
apology but Gabriel cut him short. We dont want any light. We have
light enough from the street. And I say, he added, pointing to the
candle, you might remove that handsome article, like a good man.
The porter took up his candle again, but slowly for he was surprised by
such a novel idea.27
This compares almost as perfectly as is possible, for a fictional narrative
conversation, to Conaires geis concerning not sleeping in a house from which
exterior light can be seen from the inside after dark, and from which interior light
can be seen from outside.28 With this, Gabriel has apparently broken the final of his
own geis, and his destruction commences immediately thereafter.
Within the text of Da Dergas Hostel, there are several lines which dont have
similarly clear and direct parallels to The Dead, and which are not mentioned by
any of the scholars referenced in this paper, but which would have surely inspired
Joyce to further his typically recurring themes. As Conaire and his party make their
way south on their detour towards Dublin they encounter the three mystical red
riders, presumably exiles from the hidden lands of the Tuatha de Danaan, as already
described earlier in this paper. On the third approach of Conaires messenger, one
of the red riders calls back, Though we are alive, we are dead. 29 Thus, in this

27
28

Joyce, Dubliners, 216.

Kelleher, Irish History and Mythology, 422.

29
The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel.

12

scene, the living and the dead are walking the earth together, and while the dead
can impact the living, the reverse is apparently not true.
Next, there is a prophetic description of Conaire Mor in Da Dergas Hostel
which could have easily allowed Joyce to envision a neat overlapping alignment
between not only Gabriel and Conaire, but also to include Michael Furey. Fer Rogan,
one of Conaires three foster brothers, describes the High Kings reign as they sit in
the countryside near the hostel listening to the scouting reports. Tis sad to destroy
him. Tis 'a branch through its blossom. Tis a swine that falls before mast. 'Tis an
infant in age. Sad is the shortness of his life! 30
Finally, in the text of Da Dergas Hostel, the just-mentioned scouting report
goes on for many pages. The audience of this report consists of Conaires three
foster brothers and the English raider, Ingcell. As each section of the report is
delivered, the foster brothers, each in turn, bemoan how difficult it will be to defeat
the part of Conaires entourage which has just been described. Ingcell repeatedly
cuts short their hesitancy with the phrase, Clouds of weakness come to you. 31
Given the meteorological nature of this reference, and how often it is repeated, one
must wonder if this is where Joyce drew some inspiration for the environmental
symbolism of the snow in The Dead.
Joyces Sense of Irish National Identity
Widespread access to the texts of Irish mythology only became available in
the middle of the 19th century. Prior to that time, suppression, illiteracy, and the
30
The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel.

31
The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel.

13

rarity of original texts limited access to only a select few. As this literary reality
quickly changed between 1850 and 1900, so too did the professional and political
aspirations of the Irish. Lady Gregory and Yeats resurrected the actual characters
and scenes of Irish mythology, while political actors such as Pearse and Hyde
propagated the iconic role models and the Irish language itself. Most of these
luminaries of the era contributed, in their own way, to a collective sense of a
glorious and admirable past which should serve as a compass for an independent
Irish future.
If Joyces use of mythology differs notably from his contemporaries, then so
does his sense of a realistic and emerging national identity. First, it can be
confidently inferred that Joyce had no faith in a nationalism which saw itself as the
reflected image of a glorious but imagined past. Examining the use of Irish
mythology in The Dead reinforces the direct literary techniques whereby Joyce held
up quite a different mirror to Dublin and Ireland. Darkness, death, destruction, and
curses were his theme in both cases. This is a natural alignment of Joyces inclusion
of mythological, linguistic, and historical elements with his use of modernism and
realism in his writing. Joyce was simply too brutally honest and hypercritical to
support the notion of an Irish future which was to be based upon what he apparently
saw as an imaginary past.
Similarly, Joyce is known to have made the case that adopting Irish as a new
national language was, to his view, an utterly ridiculous notion. As we know, he did
indeed study Irish during his time as a university student in Dublin. However, in the
balance, Joyce viewed the modern Irish language in essentially the same way that
he viewed Irish mythology: interesting, but more as a selective fabrication of an
unknowable past which was neither more, nor less, real and viable than the current
14

lingua franca as contained in the English language. Given all the effort that would
be required for everyone in Ireland to truly learn how to speak and write fluently in
Irish, why bother? In the final calculation, even if not openly acknowledged by Joyce
himself, such a transition from English to Irish threatened Joyces role as a
professional writer who was fluent in the former, but not the latter, and thus must
be objected to for purely personal and practical reasons.
This does not necessarily mean, however, that we should assume that Joyce
objected wholesale to the idea of Irish independence. In various letters to his
brother Stanislaus, he wrote the following:
You ask me what I would substitute for parliamentary agitation in
Ireland. I think the Sinn Fein policy would be more effective
[however]if the Irish programme [sic] did not insist on the Irish
language I suppose I could call myself a nationalist. As it is, I am
content to recognise [sic] myself an exile: and, prophetically,
repudiated one.32
Thus, while Joyce may have been at variance with contemporaries such as
Yeats and Pearse as to the proper place of Irish mythology and language in a new
Irish nationalistic ethos, all shared one crucial perspective: the belief that Irelands
paralysis had as its singular source English domination. Joyce simply felt, perhaps,
that the motivational ideology should be based upon a more forward-looking and
socially conscious paradigm than that of the class-based myths of kings and noble
heroes.

32
Mara Moran, Nationalism in James Joyce, University of Valencia archives (2000):
http://mural.uv.es/romoma/nationalism.htm (accessed July 7, 2014).

15

Bibliography
The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel. Date unknown. Fordham University
Medieval Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/1100derga.asp
(accessed July 5, 2014).
Ellis, Peter Ellis. A Dictionary of Irish Mythology. London: Constable and Company,
Ltd, 1987.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
Kelleher, John. Irish History and Mythology in James Joyces The Dead.
Review of Politics 27 (July 1965): 414-433.

The

Moran, Mara. Nationalism in James Joyce. University of Valencia archives (2000).

http://mural.uv.es/romoma/nationalism.htm (access July 7, 2014).

16

Nilsen, Kenneth. Down among the Dead: Elements of Irish Language and
Mythology in James Joyces Dubliners. Canadian Journal of Irish Studies Volume
12 (June 1986): 23-34.
ORahilly ,T.F. Early Irish History and Mythology. Dublin: Dublin Institute for
Advanced Studies, 1971.

17