Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading back my blog post below on my last visit to Howth

The Elvis and busker stories in 'Springsteen & I'

Apple strudel from Parkway opposite the Hippodrome

YHEE

The yellow winter light at Sandycove for (3rd) visit to Martello Tower and Forty Foot

Steve Lock showing me his FAC51 Hacienda card

Catching up with John Had at Bewley's Hotel

Tuesday's Happiness Experiment entry

14.i.14

Working in the National Library of Ireland (like Leopold Bloom)

The Stag's Head, Dame Court with Elisabeth & Des, Sean & Orla

Checking out the set of 'Fair City' at RTE campus, Donnybrook

Yes Yes Yes

“He likes the country life.”

On the summit of Howth Head this afternoon I read the last page of Ulysses which is in my pocket (thanks to these new phones). It ends with the Yes of Molly taking Bloom’s hand in marriage. When I took Una’s hand I rejoiced in gaining four sisters. I’m down to three now and just (an hour ago) took my leave of another one – for ever.

The sea from Ben of Howth was crystalline green, a perfect palette with the blue-grey hills beyond and the grey-tinged-with-purple rain clouds. The rain had crept up behind me from the city like a dark desert storm as I drove round and up the Head but by the time I parked up it had passed over and left a fresh sheen along the track. I speculated where Molly and Bloom may have left the main path and found their private space among the rhododendrons – I came up with a convincing hypothesis overlooking the golf course. The winbushes were still tinged with a hanging-on-in-there yellow and the odd other bloom punctuated the classic Irish countryside.

“He likes the country life” she tells her two friends, both Dubs from the hospital where she worked. I left the hill with my heart soaring like the seagulls down on Howth pier, which come in for landing like a Harrier, perfect control in the strong sea breeze as they land on the concrete edge. When I got to the end of the pier I came across the plaque commemorating the landing of The Asgard. Strange to have received a Tweet recently from Erskine Childers (the great-grandson). His great-grandfather’s exploits at Howth Head fused with The Riddle of the Sands which struck a Romantic chord with me is another facet of loving this old country I married into.

Talking to her friends she returns to her old self – Feisty is the word that springs to mind, Spirited, her own self. As I look at her profile there’s something so distinctive and endearing in that lower lip, and heart-breaking. If I hadn’t ended up with Una, Bernadette always struck me as the next best thing, closest in looks, also beautiful red hair, though hers darkened over time. She’s got the same dark masculine eyebrows, even more so, which capture her strength and determination.

She’s over in Raheny now, a couple of miles down the road. I’m in her own manor, Clontarf. A couple of the longest miles ever. She’s been very patient with me over the years, way more than I’ve been. I liked just being around her. She’s a force of Yes.

Clontarf, 2^nd November 2012

Ulysses notes

7.Xii.07 Stiftung James Joyce



Joyce's Dublin: A walking guide to Ulysses

Jack McCarthy

Wolfhound Press, Dublin 1986



0800 at Sandycove and 7 Eccles St



1400-1445 B + S cross-paths in the National Library



1455-1600 City odyssey/wandering rocks

Odd, at sea

B + S at book stalls nr Liffey



2000-2100 B is on the beach S traversed in the morning



2200-2300 B + S cross-paths in Holles Street National Maternity Hospital (my current location - chapter 14) - B then follows S



2400-0100 Nighttown

Then known as Monto (after Montgomery St) - towards Ballybough?

B comes to S's assistance after being knocked down by a British soldier (Joyce rescued by a jew incident)



0100-0200 Cabman's shelter

B finally meets S

82 Tyrone St Lower now Railway St = Bella Cohens



0200-0245 Bloom's House

Catechism



0200-0217 Molly's bedroom



Parallels:

A/B

U/M

Irish-Jewish



Ulysses to AG as Ned Kelly to oz painter

Odyssey > Ulysses > AGwk



1 sandycove / telemachus

2 school, dalkey / nestor

3 sandymount strand / proteus

4 eccles st / calypso

5 south dublin streets / lotus eaters

6 funeral procession / hades

7 freeman's journal / aeolus

8 lunch, davy byrne's / lestrygonians

9 national library / scylla & charybdis

10 city odyssey / wandering rocks

11 ormond hotel / sirens

12 barney kiernan's /cyclops

13 sandymount strand / nausicaa

14 holles st / oxen of the sun

15 nighttown / circe

16 cabman's shelter / eumaeus

17 eccles st / ithaca

18 molly's bedroom / penelope



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