Introduction to the fifth issue

The fifth issue of the James Joyce Online Notes continues its short-lived tradition of publishing articles on a range of different topics relating to Joyce’s Dublin. As before, it contains a mixture of biographical, historical, and lexical commentary, digging into areas which have previously been incompletely understood or critically disregarded, particular as we (as a culture) forget once-significant details of the historical environment over passing generations.

Terence Killeen and Vincent Deane both offer two articles each, with Vincent discussing the Opal Hush and Molly’s taittering lips, and Terence clarifying subleaders and references to Thomas Campbell and Samuel Ferguson.

Alongside these biographical articles we would also draw attention to Homan Potterton’s historical study of his Joycean ancestor mired in a lunacy case, and Austin Briggs’s reflections on sandfrog showers in Gibraltar.

We are delighted to have an article by Chris Kane on his grandfather Matthew Kane who, in the role of Martin Cunningham, is a dominant character in sections of Dubliners and Ulysses. Similarly we are indebted to John Gallaher, son of Brendan John Gallaher (Joyce’s “Brennie”) for supplying background material for John Simpson’s article on Gerald and Brendan Gallaher, itself part of a large panoramic view of the Gallaher clan presented in several articles.

Harald Beck provides explication of the forgotten advertising cliché “that tired feeling” and of the cobbles that are washed off; John Simpson ruminates on “dear dirty Dublin” and whether it should really be ascribed to Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson), and discovers why Joyce referred to a specific issue of the Culotte Rouge as Pantalon Blanc et Culotte Rouge.

Harald Beck

John Simpson

September 2013