Scratching at Scabs: The Garryowens of Ireland

Abstract

Outspoken, xenophobic, and off-putting, the citizen has been the focus of nearly every critical analysis of Irish nationalism in Ulysses. Yet scholars have nearly forgotten the only other character in Kiernan’s pub who understands the Irish language: Garryowen.1 The few who do attempt to discern the dog’s significance generally point to a 1775 song, which celebrates the lawless adolescents of Limerick’s suburb, Garryowen.2 They argue that the song, ‘‘Garryowen,’’ and its rowdy subjects share characteristics with Joyce’s citizen and his canine companion. For example, Joseph Prescott highlights and Don Gifford reiterates that ‘‘Garryowen’’ is an ‘‘Irish roistering song’’ and thus corresponds to the citizen and his nationalistic sentiments.3 Richard Ellmann, on the other hand, suggests that the dog has biographical relevance: ‘‘Even the dog Garryowen was not made up of stray barks and bites, but belonged to the father of Joyce’s Aunt Josephine Murray, whom Gerty MacDowell accurately identifies as ‘Grandpapa Giltrap’ ’’ (JJ 365). But the name, the place, and the dog carry significance for Joyce studies that goes beyond superficial connections and esoteric biography. A small literary tradition springs from the suburb’s mythically rambunctious associations, which the 1775 song articulates. The dog motif in Ulysses draws not only on the song ‘‘Garryowen’’ but also on Gerald Griffin’s The Collegians: A Tale of Garryowen (1829); Maria Edgeworth’s ‘‘Garry Owen: or, the Snow Woman’’ (1832); Dion Boucicault’s The Colleen Bawn, or the Brides of Garryowen (1860); and H. De Vere Stacpoole’s Garryowen: The Romance of a Race-horse (1909). An examination of these works reveals a unifying theme that Joyce adopts and comments on in Ulysses. Namely, the protagonists must choose between a beautiful animal