Context

Question 1

Population in Dublin in 1900

Answer 1

400,000

Question 2

Area of Dublin in 1900

Answer 2

24 square miles

Question 3

Gaelic Revival

Answer 3

Attempts to reintroduce Irish language, literature and sports in the late 1800s

Question 4

Industry in Dublin

Answer 4

Did not industrialise like Belfast and northern English cities did

Had breweries, distilleries and other smaller industries - but no large scale trade sector

Question 5

‘The second city of Empire’

Answer 5

Many felt that Dublin had lost the right to this name due to the swift industrialisation of other cities

Question 6

When did Ireland effectively lose its independence to begin with?

Answer 6

Norman invasions of 1169 and 1171 - from then on, Ireland had been under Norman/English control

Question 7

When did Ireland gain dominion status?

Answer 7

1922 - Anglo-Irish Treaty (thus during Joyce’s time, many saw it as an era of occupation by an overtly hostile enemy)

Question 8

Parnell

Answer 8

Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (1882-1891)
Politically sidelined due to his affair with William O’Shea’s wife
Led to the stagnation of Irish politics

Question 9

Joyce’s feelings regarding Parnell

Answer 9

Believed that the scandal had been hypercriticised and fabricated by Parnell’s opponents
Felt that the Irish people had betrayed Parnell (particularly the Church)

Question 10

Historian A. J. P. Taylor on Parnell

Answer 10

‘More than any other man he gave Ireland the sense of being an independent nation’

Question 11

Joyce’s education

Answer 11

The Society of Jesus - a Jesuit order - strict and rigorous education

Question 12

Joyce’s religious beliefs

Answer 12

Felt that the church as a whole kept society ‘backward’ compared to the social and philosophical developments being made in the rest of Europe

However, many commentators feel that a Catholic sensibility continued to shape Joyce’s thinking - personal letters testify that he continued to attend Catholic Mass as well as Orthodox services, particularly in the week leading up to Easter

Question 13

Number of religious figures in 1800

Answer 13

Only 1,850 priests and bishops and 122 nuns

Question 14

Number of religious figures in 1900

Answer 14

3,700 priests and 8,000 nuns (incredible growth of the number of religious figures in Ireland during the nineteenth century)

Question 15

Father of the Irish Revival

Answer 15

Standish James O’Grady

Question 16

Gaelic League formed

Answer 16

1893

Question 17

Legality of beating in 1900

Answer 17

A parent could legally beat any child over the age of two

Question 18

Corporal punishment abolished in Ireland

Answer 18

1982 - use of physical punishment by parents and teachers would have been very normal in 1900

Question 19

Education for middle classes

Answer 19

Boys were educated both at school and by private tutors – emphasis on Maths and Classics
Girls could be educated at school or at home – emphasis on singing, sewing, drawing as well as languages (French or German)

Question 20

Divorce in 1901 census

Answer 20

Census states that only 1 divorce took place within the five-year period that the census concerns – divorce was incredibly rare, which makes marriage all the more entrapping

Question 21

Level of marriage in 1901 census

Answer 21

Only 35.1% of women between 15 and 45 were married, giving Ireland the lowest level of marriage in any European country

Question 22

Average age of marriage

Answer 22

The average age at marriage was very high, and permanent celibacy (like Maria) was actually quite common at this time

Question 23

Married Women’s Property Act

Answer 23

1882 - allowed married women to own and control property in their own right

Question 24

Number of women in Magdalene Laundries

Answer 24

30,000

Question 25

Joyce’s view of fallen women

Answer 25

Believed this was a false idea

Question 26

% of discourse that is female

Answer 26

Women account for less than 25% of direct discourse in Dubliners

Question 27

Garry Leonard on the crumbling of imperialism

Answer 27

Imperial Britain was slowing devolving, and with this came the pressure for Ireland to understand itself as Irish (Garry Leonard)

Question 28

Joyce’s style of…

Answer 28

Joyce’s ‘scrupulous meanness’ is perfected in Dubliners as he explores the catastrophic world of his characters