Summer Break

Please note that the reading group is taking a break over the summer. The next reading will be held on Thursday, 14 August.

Thursday, 17 Junly 2025 (286.18)

The last reading stopped at: “and turn over.” (286.18)

On his way home, Ron Ewart had a hunch about the maths on p. 285 (from the Finnish numerals, followed by the English “outher words”, ending with “bullyclavers”, 285.17-26):

McHugh works out the Finnish maths for us (giving the total as 479,001,600) and also clarifies each individual English number (arriving at the same total). As I was thinking about this, I doubted that these would just be random numbers. So, I checked out the population figures for Dublin 1930 on my ever-helpful computer and found this: “In 1930, Dublin's population was approximately (eh?) 468,103”. This makes sense to me, with “bullyclavers” then being simply “Dubliners”.

Neither McHugh nor Fweet point this out. Good work, Ron! Thanks for sharing this.

On a far more accessible note, here's an illustration for one of the group's favourite passages:

“The balbearians” (285.L7)

Thursday, 10 July 2025 (285.8)

The last reading stopped mid-sentence at: “house blong him,” (285.8)

One favourite phrase was:

“the zeroic couplet” (284.10)

Thursday, 3 July 2025 (284.4)

The last reading stopped at: “The family umbroglia." (284.4)