James Joyce Ulysses Delahunt aka Cassidys

James Joyce has a deep connection to Camden Sreett & imparticularly Delahunts Pub no. 42 (Now Cassidy’s) as mentioned in Ulysses.

Bloomsday 1904 and the Joycean Connection

While there are many pubs in Dublin that claim tenuous connections with James Joyce and Ulysses, Cassidy’s is a notable exception. James Joyce was a regular here, or as close to a regular as Joyce’s wanderings would allow.

The reason for Joyce’s patronage of Delahunt’s relates to the immediacy of Camden Hall, and the Irish Dramatic Company, which in 1902 had been formed eight doors down the street at no. 34.

Joyce loved theatre, the arts and music halls within which he himself was an accomplished performer. However, this venue did not always approve of Joyce’s errant behaviour as he was on one occasion ejected from Camden Hall for falling down drunk and looking up the skirts of leading actress, Vera Esposito.

Bloomsday 1904 and the Joycean Connection

Delahunt’s Enters Literary Fame Delahunt’s was famous for its own labelled whiskeys and ports back in this era. It was customary for reputable houses to undertake agreements with distilleries and wineries to purchase casks of product, which were then aged under bond until called upon. In the Wandering Rocks chapter of Ulysses, Joyce refers both to Delahunt’s port and their external catering service. ‘He checked his tale a moment but broke out in a wheezy laugh. But wait till I tell you, he said. Delahunt of Camden Street had the catering and yours truly was chief bottlewasher. Bloom and the wife were there. Lashings of stuff we put up, port wine and sherry and curacao, to which we did ample justice. Fast and furious it was. After liquids came solids. Cold joints galore and mince pies….” Joyce later refers to Delahunt’s famous port wine. “Lenehan linked his arm warmly. —But wait till I tell you, he said. We had a midnight lunch too after all the jollification and when we sallied forth it was blue o’clock the morning after the night before. Coming home it was a gorgeous winter’s night on the Featherbed Mountain. Bloom and Chris Callinan were on one side of the car and I was with the wife on the other. We started singing glees and duets: Lo, the early beam of morning. She was well primed with a good load of Delahunt’s port under her bellyband. Every jolt the bloody car gave I had her bumping up against me. Hell’s delights! She has a fine pair, God bless her. Like that.”

Over recent years this Joycean reference of literary illumination has been erroneously associated with the third of Joseph Delahunt’s acquistions, namely no. 39 Lower Camden Street, but this premises was not acquired by Delahunt until some years later, and was therefore not in his possession on Bloomsday 1904, the date on which the entire book is based. Therefore, the two references refer to no. 42 – Cassidy’s.