Reading Dubliners in Ireland

Grattan Bridge, Ormond Quay, Temple Bar, O’Neil’s, Grafton Street, Davey Byrne’s, O’Connell Street, Trinity College, Merrian Square, the Gresham Hotel, O’Connell Street Bridge, Georgian Townhouses,  Brown Thomas’s, O’Connell’s statue, the Pigeon House, and the Liffey.  After our trip to Dublin it is easy to visualize many of the settings in Joyce’s stories from Dubliners.  The characters and the phrases they use in the stories benefit from our experiences in Dublin and Dungarvan as well.   When Little Chandler asks Gallaher if he has been to Paris, he answers smugly “I should think I have!  I’ve knocked about there a little” (48).  When Gabriel is self-effacing about his speaking skills in “The Dead” he says: “It has fallen to my lot this evening, as in years past, to perform a very pleasing task but a task for which I am afraid my poor powers as a speaker are all too inadequate” (137), and I can hear the lilt of the voice as well as see the tilting of the head.  Joyce captures the Irish language, syntax, and mannerisms well, but I believe that it is only after visiting Ireland that the stories really come alive.  Some of the students that have read Joyce before have said as much in the classroom.  Being in Ireland helps us understand Irish culture, politics, sensibilities, and religious customs.  Of course, reading Joyce for a second time doesn’t hurt the understanding either.