Archbishop of Armagh
Archbishop
of Armagh
In Brief
In a triumphal procession of political eminences leading up
to Bloom's coronation, Circe includes two churchmen
with identical titles: "His Eminence Michael cardinal
Logue, archbishop of Armagh, primate of all Ireland, His
Grace, the most reverend Dr William Alexander, archbishop of
Armagh, primate of all Ireland." The solution to what
may seem a paradox can be found in the fact that these two men
come not from different historical eras but from different
Christian demonimations. In Ireland both the Roman Catholic
Church and the (protestant) Church of Ireland seat their
ruling archbishops in the small northern city of Armagh.
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Armagh's status as a holy site dates to pagan times. Its
original, untransliterated name, Ard Mhacha or
"Macha's height," refers to a shrine to the Ulster goddess
Macha. In Christian times the church and monastery that Saint
Patrick reportedly founded there became the most important
ones in Ireland. During the Plantation of Ulster in the early
17th century Armagh became an English-controlled town and the
cathedral became a Protestant holding. In the second half of
the 19th century, Catholics built a new and grander St.
Patrick's Cathedral on another hill, so now the town has two
cathedrals with the same name. And two archbishops with the
same title.
Michael Logue (1840-1924), a blacksmith's son from County
Donegal, excelled as a scholar at Maynooth College, taught
theology at the Irish College in Paris, and was ordained a
priest of the Catholic church in December 1866. He became the
archbishop of Armagh in December 1877 and was made a cardinal
in 1893. His grave is in the grounds of the Catholic St.
Patrick's cathedral in Armagh.
William Alexander (1824-1911), the son of an Ulster Scots
minister in Derry, studied at Oxford, took holy orders in
1848, and became archbishop of Armagh in February 1896. In
addition to eloquent sermons, he wrote several theological
works and a large of body of accomplished poems. In a personal
communication, Vincent Van Wyk points out that his grave is
not in the cemetery of St. Columb's Cathedral in Derry, as
Vivien Igoe has it, but in the Derry city cemetery. (However,
as Van Wyk has showed me in person, a room in that cathedral
does perpetuate the memory of the archbishop in a massive
writing desk and a fine oil portrait.)
Shortly after these two primates are identified in the
procession of worthies, they participate in the anointing of
Bloom as Leopold the First, "emperor-president and
king-chairman" of all Ireland. "WILLIAM, ARCHBISHOP OF
ARMAGH" administers an oath: "Will you to your power
cause law and mercy to be executed in all your judgments in
Ireland and territories thereunto belonging?" "MICHAEL,
ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH" pours "a cruse of hairoil"
over Bloom's head and declares him anointed. Bloom's ascension
is thus ratified by both of Ireland's major churches––though
the oddly echoing manner in which the two prelates pop up may
instead create the impression that he has been confirmed by
Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Cardinal Michael Logue. Source: www.findagrave.com.
1890 photograph of William Alexander by Samuel Alexander Walker held in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
2007 photograph by Flying jacket of the Roman Catholic St. Patrick's cathedral in Armagh. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
2013 photograph by JohnArmagh of the Church of Ireland St. Patrick's cathedral in Armagh. Source: Wikimedia Commons.