Understanding Joyce's Ulysses Part 1: People to Know (Politics)

For the modern reader, Joyce's Ulysses can be a daunting challenge. Stylistic complexity aside, the world of the characters is one that is far removed from our own. The Ireland of 1904 was engaged in a centuries-long conflict with England over the establishment of the first sovereign Irish nation in 700 years, a conflict that had, in the century preceding, led to several violent uprisings in the name of land-rights and political representation. Thus, the Dublin of James Joyce's youth and adolescence was a dynamic collection of ideologies competing for the heart of the nationalist movement to autonomy. Here I shall lay out a few of the major players in this political culture, to help you through your first time reading. By no means should this list be considered complete, and I will continue adding to it over time.

Parnell earned the nickname "the uncrowned king of Ireland" from his leadership of the Irish nationalist movement towards autonomy from Britain in the 1880's. Himself an Anglo-Irish protestant, he preferred a constitutional solution to the Irish desire for autonomy rather than violence. He proved his political dynamism in uniting beneath his own banner, as it were, various broad political groups that, previous to his rise and following his descent, clashed over the means and goals of achieving Irish autonomy. Parnell was not without enemies, however. He had been accused of condoning the controversial Phoenix Park murders when a letter attributed to him, and later found to be a forgery, was printed in a prominent Dublin newspaper. The end of Parnell's political career began when Captain William O'Shea, the husband of his long-time mistress Katharine O'Shea, came forward about the affair, citing Parnell in the divorce papers he presented in December, 1890. Parnell's public support was divided over the issue, but ultimately the anti-Parnellite contingency won out following the influential condemnation of his infidelity by the Irish Catholic Church and the stepping down of his prominent lieutenants, most notably Tim Healy. Parnell soon after became ill, and he died on October 6, 1891.

The Fenian movement began in 1858 as a violent form of resistance against English rule, the sovereignty of Ireland as a autonomous nation being their ultimate goal. The movement is well-known for its promotion of using violent means to achieve its aims, however it never managed to achieve lasting success. The official movement was disbanded by a vote of its members in 1880. It's ideology lived on in Irish hearts, and it is generally considered to have provided a direct ideological groundwork for such violent groups as the Black & Tans and the violent rebellions of Easter 1916 and 1919-1921, the last of which resulted in the official declaration of Irish sovereignty.

Arthur Griffith was the editor of the newspaper The United Irishman , an organ of the pro-Parnell contingency, which remained loyal to him for a time following his fall as other major news sources began favoring anti-Parnell coverage. In the years following Parnell's death, Griffith became known for his particular treatment of the Irish quest for Home Rule as a reflection of the earlier, yet historically recent, success of Hungary gaining a measure of political autonomy while remaining within the Austro-Hungarian empire.  Following in the example of the Hungarian nationalists, Griffith started the political movement known as Sinn Fein (Gaelic: "Ourselves Alone").  This group acted as a political party who, when elected to a chair in the British Parliament, would protest English governance of Ireland by leaving the seat physically empty, instead convening together in Dublin.  This party rose in prominence through the first quarter of the twentieth century, and laid the political groundwork for the Free Irish State, founded in 1922.