Tay Pay
Tay
Pay
In Brief
The "Tay Pay" mentioned by both Myles Crawford and the
Citizen is T. P. (Thomas Power) O'Connor, an Irish
newspaperman and politician living in England who pronounced
his initials in this characteristically Irish way (like
"Jaysus" for Jesus). O'Connor is remembered as a prominent
journalist and as a strong advocate for home rule during his
five decades in Parliament.
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Born in 1848 in Athlone, in County Westmeath, O'Connor became
known as a talented orator in college at Galway. After college
he moved to Dublin and got a job as a reporter. Several years
later he moved to London and built a substantial reputation as
a journalist working for the London Daily Telegraph
and the New York Herald. He won election as an MP for
Galway in 1880, representing the Home Rule League. In 1885 he
won a seat from Liverpool––the only Irish nationalist ever to
represent a constituency outside of Ireland––and kept that
seat until his death in 1929. In 1888 he founded The Star
and edited the paper for two or three years. Soon he founded
and edited several other new publications: The Weekly Sun
(1891), The Sun (1893), and M.A.P. and
T.P.'s Weekly (1902). O'Connor published several books
on historical and biographical topics, and in 1906 he helped
to pass a copyright bill for music to protect composers from
the rampant piracy of the day.
Slote observes that "O'Connor was so well-known that his
nickname is included in Partridge's dictionary of slang," and
also that "In 1900, during a visit to London, Joyce contacted
O'Connor for a journalistic job, but was turned down as he was
too young (Ellmann, p. 77)." Ellmann's detail provides
interesting context not only for Myles Crawford saying that
Ignatius Gallaher's career in journalism was helped when
"Paddy Hooper worked Tay Pay who took him on to the Star,"
but also for the presence of Stephen Dedalus in the newspaper
office. Although Stephen seems to recoil from Crawford's
suggestion that he might have a future in journalism, the
young James Joyce published many pieces in
newspapers, and on this occasion in 1900 (only 18 years
old, and accompanied by his father) he actually sought a job
in the field. Stephen is deferential toward his elders
throughout Aeolus, and at the end of the chapter, on
his way to buy them drinks, he tries to impress them with a
fragment of prose fiction. It seems that his aims in visiting
the newspaper office may not be limited to getting Deasy's
letter into print.
O'Connor is mentioned once more in Cyclops, when his
long residence across the water stirs the Citizen's antipathy
to all things English: "—The French! says the citizen. Set of
dancing masters! Do you know what it is? They were never worth
a roasted fart to Ireland. Aren’t they trying to make an Entente
cordiale now at Tay Pay’s dinnerparty with
perfidious Albion? Firebrands of Europe and they always were."
