Ditto McAnaspey and the same for me, please
U 12.144-7: - Wine of the country, says he.
- What’s yours? Says
Joe.
- Ditto MacAnaspey,
says I.
-Three pints, Terry,
says Joe. And how’s the old heart, citizen? Says he.
Letters: 18
July 1931: With best Xmas wishes to Mr and Mrs Joyce
from Mr and Mrs Ditto MacAnaspey.1
The expression “Ditto
MacAnaspey” does not seem to be recorded widely outside Joyce’s circle and so
it would seem to be a local or a family expression. It occurs twice in Joyce’s
writings: once in Ulysses, where it
is used by the I-narrator when asked what he wants to drink (= “I’ll have the same as
him”, which was “wine of the country” – i.e. beer); and secondly in the
subscription by Joyce to a letter to his brother Stanislaus (i.e. from one
Joyce to another). Richard Ellmann glosses it “a catch phrase of Joyce’s
father, meaning simply ‘ditto’”.
Gifford (Ulysses Annotated) tells us that the expression arose in local politics:
This
peculiar name means "son of the bishop" in Irish. At the time of the great
split over Parnell’s leadership, a MacAnaspey, a member of a family of Dublin
tombstone makers, made a lengthy speech in a public meeting. The speaker who
followed him said simply: "Ditto MacAnaspey".
Gerry O’Flaherty2 tells
a different story:
Ditto MacAnaspey: The McAnaspies were Stucco plasterers, Scagliola
and Figure Artists etc. The story goes that there was an auction and two busts
of the same individual were in the sale; one by a distinguished sculptor and
the other by McAnaspey. The catalogue listed them as lot 1 Joe Bloggs by (say)
Foley and lot 2 Ditto McAnaspey. The phrase went into Dublinese as meaning “the
same again”, particularly in pub talk.
Both explanations are
quite possible, and there seems to be a thread linking them in the form of the
MacAnaspeys/McAnaspies, the “Dublin tombstone makers” or “stucco plasterers”.
The McAnaspies: stucco plasterers, and dabblers “a little
too much” in politics, in public questions, and in the law
Patrick and Thomas
M‘Anaspie were brothers. Thomas was born around 1807, and his brother slightly earlier. In the late 1820s or 1830s
they established a business as “figure and ornamental modellers, scagliola
artists, plain and ornamental stucco plasterers, general builders, &c.” at
the manufactory at 37 (later 31) Great Brunswick Street.3 Bloom
would have passed it on the road after St Mark’s and the Antient Concert Rooms
on his way to Paddy Dignam’s funeral on Bloomsday. They were more than
tombstone makers, and liked to impress upon the public that they were true
artists in plaster:
Houses neatly Fronted, in every style of Architecture, either in
Roman, Portland, or Mastic cement; and Ornaments of every description, modelled
from the designs of the most eminent Architects, in a very superior manner, and
on most reasonable terms. Altars, Columns, Walls of Rooms, Staircases, Halls,
Vestibules, either panneled [sic] or
plain, done in Verd Antique, Yellow Antique, Lapis Lazuli, Sienna, Black and
Gold Raussi, Brocedo, Brocadilio, and the different tinted Granites,
Porphryrys, &c.
Gentlemen’s and Royal Coats of Arms; Heads, Grotesque Figures,
Bosses, Finellies, Creepers, &c. Centre pieces, Enrichments for Cornices,
Capitals for Columns, &c., in either the Norman, Angle, or Florid Gothic
style; or in Roman, Grecian, or French Architecture, done by hand, or modelled
to design, either in Cement, Stucco, or Plaster of Paris, and sent to any part
of the Kingdom.
They also offered
life masks and death masks, and were generally not shy about advertising their
business. The brothers were extremely keen on promoting Irish manufactures and
sourcing their materials from Ireland. They were fiercely protective of their
business, maintaining a public argument with the Stucco Plasterers of Dublin in
the newspapers in 1840.4 In
the 1840s they also built up the asphalt side of the business, as the Paving
Commissioners of Dublin set about relaying footpaths etc.
In 1846 the brothers
were declared bankrupt, but they soon bounced back with renewed vigour. Patrick
went over to Liverpool to set up a second office in what seemed an easier
financial climate, and looked into the patenting process; Thomas maintained the
Dublin business in his own inimitable way. By the 1850s the family was
referring to themselves in advertisements as “The M‘Anaspies”, and were
particularly publicizing their ability with Portland stone. Thomas had for
several years now been promoting Schools of Design for Irish Art, and he
alluded to this frequently in the newspapers. In addition, he was becoming more
and more heavily involved in local politics. Known as a free and powerful
speaker, he attacked in particular the City Attachment law, supported the Irish
Manufacture Movement, sent Irish products (“specimens of cement”5) to
the Great Exhibition in London, and exerted himself both on behalf of his own
business and Irish interests generally.
P. & T.
M‘Anaspie, No 31 Great Brunswick Street
from Henry Shaw’s Dublin Pictorial Guide and Directory (1850)
By 1860 he was back
in the public eye with his pamphlet Strike Amongst Workmen: Its Causes and Consequences, in a
Series of Letters Addressed to the Right Honourable Lord Brougham, published by M‘Glashan & Gill of Sackville Street.
This was noted by so weighty a social commentator as the magazine Punch
in 1861:
It is purely in the exercise of his own sovereign will and
pleasure that he [i.e. Mr. Punch]
prints the following extract from a Dublin Pote, who has favoured him with a
pamphlet on the subject of Strikes. The elegance and eloquence of the
composition do honour to the author, Mr. M'Anaspie […]
A tradesman’s first duty is to protect his trade,
From all encroachments lawless power has made;
For it is he that raises cities, towns, and squares,
And almost every article that mankind wants and wears,
[Etc.]
Anyhow, […] the poetry is eminently calculated to scare the
Detracting Nabobs against whom the Pote launches his fulminations. Brave,
M'Anaspie! It’s yourself that can hold the candle straight, sir.6
At much the same time
the M‘Anaspie, as he now called himself as self-appointed clan chief, was
advertising his annual auction sale of statuary:
Statuary
by Auction. – The Annual Sale of Statuary and a variety of other Devices for
Pleasure Grounds, &c., on Monday, the 27th instant, at the McAnaspie's
Galleries, 31, Great Brunswick-street. Amongst them will be found Sacred and
other Figures from life-size to six inches high, composed of Sacred, Antique,
and Modern subjects, and that from the Ancient and Modern Masters, as well as a
great variety of Vases, Animals, Birds, &c.; Flowers for decorating rooms,
Mandarins, Tripods, Tritons, Jet D'Eaus, Chimney Pots (Asphaltes), Garden
Chairs, ornamented with Fern devices – all open for inspection at the McAnaspies',
Artists and Stucco Plasterers, Statuary Gallery, 31, Great Brunswick-street,
Dublin.7
In 1865 Thomas
M‘Anaspie threw himself into the competition for the design of the O’Connell
Monument in Dublin. He submitted four designs, one an extremely elaborate domed
structure requiring paying visitors. His model remained on display at his
offices long after it was rejected in favour of the successful Foley design.
His growing eccentricity was shown by another M‘Anaspie exhibit:
Model
of a Dutch Pig. Now Exhibiting in one of the Agricultural Show Galleries, Royal
Dublin Society, by the M'Anaspies. The Model of a Dutch Pig, made of Lard and
other compositions so as to represent Statuary Marble, resting on a Paddock as
a Pedestal, representing Nature in its bloom, with the wild Rose, Shamrock, and
Thistle, and other Flowers of the Field intertwined, as the emblems of Majesty.
The original of same was got up for Mr Byrne, the Purveyor, of D’Olier-street.8
He published a
pamphlet on the O’Connell Monument, “containing a Review of the different
Designs exhibited in the City Hall”, and describes himself as:
Author
of the Pamphlet published by M'Glashen and Gill, Dublin; Marshall, London; and
M'Kenzie, Edinburgh, on the inequitable mode of levying the general taxation of
these countries, and monopoly of trades and trade, and their bad effects on the
industry, prosperity, peace and contentment of the people, and the permanent
stability of the empire at large.9
In December 1866
Thomas M‘Anaspie spoke at a meeting for the working man in Dublin held to give
the radical reformer John Bright an Irish platform for his views on Home Rule and
liberty. Representatives of the Orange and Fenian movements were present in the
background, and although John Bright’s remarks were mainly listened to
attentively there was trouble after the words of another speaker:
Here
a row ensued that lasted for some time. Order being restored at length, a voice
was heard, "All those who are for physical force hold up hands." A number of
hands were held up. Mr. M'Anaspie then proceeded to address the meeting, but
was obliged to retire in consequence of the hisses and disorder.10
The promotion of
asphalt pathways went hand in hand with support for the tailors’ strike in
Dublin of 1867. Business seems to have been good that year:
Asphalting.
– South Dublin Union. The clerk read an application from Mr. Thomas McAnaspie,
of Great Brunswick-street, for payment of an account for a quantity of
asphalting done in the work-house. Mr. Bentley, one of the guardians, said the
work had been done in a manner superior to that of the previous contractors,
and at a less cost. He was sorry it was not in their power to give Mr McAnaspie
a higher price… Reference to asphalte work recently done for the Corporation, South
Dublin Union, Ordinance Department, Kingstown and Wicklow Railways, Kilmainham,
Richmond and Grangegorman Prisons, Thomas Vance, Esq., and numerous private
parties, by the McAnaspies, Dublin.11
The business had not
kept the M‘Anaspies out of the Dublin courts of law, but in the early 1870s
there were more public spats. Thomas M‘Anaspie, stucco plasterer, was summonsed
for assault on Anne Hassan. He claimed that she was struck in the course of an
argument with his wife. Despite contending in “a long statement” that there was
no reason he would strike “the poor woman he had never seen”, he was “forcibly
removed from the dock” and fined ten shillings.12
The following years saw applications for summons and counter-summons by Thomas
M‘Anaspie and his wife, and at the same time a curious set of advertisements
drawing material from all aspects of the M‘Anaspie’s life:
The
M'Anaspies are unimpeachable. The M'Anaspies disregard either monkeys or
nincompoops, who would and have attempted to put a false face on them or their
profession, and beat them for being ugly as to reputation. First, as artists;
second, as stucco plasterers; third, as general statuists; fourth, as asphalte
manufacturers and workers; fifth, as patentees; sixth, as promoters of the
schools of design of this empire; seventh, as authors of a work dedicated to
the late Lord Brougham, proposing to raise 85 millions per year on two items,
as well as an irresistible army of two millions of well-disciplined and
fighting men, and that without one farthing of outlay to the State [etc., etc.]
[…]
[Signed]
The M'Anaspies, And Sons, and even Daughters and, with all her faults, Mrs.
Mac, the true descendant of nobility and princes.13
By now he had in mind
the publication of a weekly newspaper for the working man (the Irish Artisan and People’s Paper, subsequently
the Citizen and Irish Artisan, published
from 30 Great Brunswick Street):
A
Printer would be treated with who has type sufficient to print a weekly paper,
edited and conducted by The M'Anaspie. Its politics will be universal – to
advocate all countries enslaved, either morally, socially, or politically. As
Adam is the prototype of nature, so are all mankind. The M'Anaspie and Sons,
Great Brunswick-street.14
Meanwhile Thomas
continues with his soap opera for business advertisements:
The
M'Anaspies, of 31 Great Brunswick-street, will Sell by Auction […] all his
Stock in Trade, … and will knock down same as a lawyer does his clients, and as
an M.P. his constituents, but I must have my fee.
[signed]
The M'Anaspies, And only myself, and no other but The M'Anaspies, and I think I
will group the family, and that Heroine, Mrs. M'A.15
The
M'Anaspies' Political Creed or Admonition to all Mankind, will appear on the
walls of this and all other cities, mountains, hamlet, &c., and in all
places wherever mankind have [sic] printed his foot thereupon …
[Signed]
The M'Anaspies, Sons and Daughters, and even Mrs. Mac, the heroic.16
C. P. Curran
discusses the work of the McAnaspie brothers, remembering particularly a
self-portrait:
More
remarkable were several colossal busts that distinguished the façade of
Butler's Medical Hall in O'Connell Street near the bridge. Esculapius was in
the centre, but Thomas McAnaspie was also there wearing a civic wreath and
tunic, until H.M.S. Helga bombarded
them all from their perches during the Easter Rising.17
The remaining years
of Thomas M‘Anaspie’s life were taken up with the same concerns: plasterwork,
publications, summons and law suits, and finally the mortgage sale of his
properties in Great Brunswick Street, in late 1877. He died on 2 November 1877,
described by the Irish Builder as a
“Dublin Character”, “our old citizen of fifty years’ standing”, a man who
“dabbled a little too much in politics and public questions for his peace of
mind”, and “was rather fond of law and rushing into print, and could not escape
betimes burning his fingers”.18 He
was buried in Glasnevin cemetery.
The aftermath
Thomas M‘Anaspie’s
wife Mary had problems after his death. She remained in the Great Brunswick
Street property, even though it had been sold. Finally she was removed by bill
of ejectment, and the family maintained its radical stance into the next
generation.
There is little doubt
that Joyce’s father John would have heard of the family. Around the time that
he joined the Office of the Collector-General of Rates a damning Report on the
Office was published. Deep in the evidence presented to the Commissioners was a
statement about Thomas M‘Anaspie by John Joyce’s new colleague William
Weatherup (Wetherup of Ulysses):
[Weatherup] I know a man with
horses and drays, and they are all covered by bill of sale. The warrant officer
on going there compared the property with bill of sale, and found it was all
covered. I might mention another case – M'Anaspie, of Brunswick-street. No
rates could be got out of him, and he occupied my time three or four years
going after him.19
None of this is evidence, however, that Thomas
M‘Anaspie was the person behind the expression “Ditto Macanaspey”. But it is
suggestive.
Gifford regards Macanaspey as a tombstone maker who
might make a “lengthy speech in a public meeting”. Thomas M‘Anaspie might
certainly be described in those terms, as we have seen. Whether someone who
followed him with another speech simply said “Ditto M‘Anaspie” is not known.
But a precedent exists.
The story went the rounds throughout the nineteenth
century – and is still retold today - of Henry Cruger, an American merchant who
was one of the MPs for Bristol in the late eighteenth century. He was elected
in 1774, just ahead of Edmund Burke in the Bristol polls. Both men were
elected.
As George Lawton tells the popular story – which
might have stood as a model for “Ditto Macanaspey” - in The American Caucus System (1885):
[Edmund Burke] reached Bristol after
the polls had been open for five days, but going directly to work he addressed
the electors: "Gentlemen, I am come hither to solicit in person that favour
which my friends have hitherto endeavored to procure for me," and continuing so
eloquently and effectively that great enthusiasm was aroused in his favor.
Indeed his colleague (Bristol was entitled to two members), who, by the way,
was a native of New York, could only say when called upon to address the
electors in his turn, "Gentlemen, I say ditto to Mr. Burke, again I say ditto,"
earning for himself from that moment the life-long soubriquet "Ditto Cruger".20
Whether the expression “Ditto MacAnaspey” arose from
confusion at an auction sale, or in the cut and thrust of political debate, or
in some other way, it appears that Thomas M‘Anaspie had all the credentials to
be the local legend on whom the expression was based.
- Quite so, Mr Bloom dittoed. (U 16.884)
John Simpson
Search by keyword (within this site)
Search by keyword (within this site)
Back to top
1
James Joyce, Letters, ed. Richard
Ellmann (London: Faber, 1966), vol. 3, p. 222
2
Chairman, James Joyce Institute, Dublin, and Vice-President of the Old Dublin Society (personal communication)
3
Freeman’s Journal (1839) 21 March. Scagliola: “plaster-work of
Italian origin, designed to imitate kinds of stone” (OED)
4
See, for instance, Freeman’s Journal (1840) 23
September
5
Official Catalogue of the Great
Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (London, 1851), p. 16
6
Punch (1861) 13 April
7
Freeman’s Journal (1860) 31 August
8
Freeman’s Journal (1865) 19 April
9
Freeman’s Journal (1866) 18 April
10
Cheshire Observer (1866) 10 November,
p. 32
11
Freeman’s Journal (1870) 3 September
12
Freeman’s Journal (1872) 7 September
13
Freeman’s
Journal (1874) 13 January
14
Freeman’s Journal (1874) 9 January
15
Freeman’s Journal (1874) 5 February
16
Freeman’s Journal (1874) 7 February
17
C. P. Curran, Under the Receding Wave
(Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1970), p. 60
18
Cited in Freeman’s Journal (1877) 20
November
19
1878 [C.2062] Report
to His Grace the Duke of Marlborough, K.G., Lord Lieutenant-General and General
Governor of Ireland, of Commissioners of Inquiry into the collection of rates
in the city of Dublin, with minutes of evidence,
p. 67
20
Lawton, ch. 5, p. 48
