Come home to ma

Come home to ma

In Brief

At the beginning of Lotus Eaters Bloom watches a wretchedly poor boy and imagines his daily existence: "Waiting outside pubs to bring da home. Come home to ma, da." This is the first of many moments in Ulysses when Joyce draws attention to the division of Irish society into stay-at-home women and linger-in-the-pub men. His observations of the harms done to Irish family life by constant drinking are frequent enough to be called a major theme of the novel.
John Hunt 2020
Playwright Brendan Behan laughing with companions in August 1952, in a photograph held in the Hulton Archive, Getty Images. Source: www.pinterest.com.
Larry O'Rourke's pub in a photograph of unknown date. Source: www.flickr.com.