Irishtown

"Irishtown" is a suburb on the seacoast east of Dublin, south of the River Liffey and north of Sandymount. The name dates to the 15th century, when the English rulers of Dublin became fearful of being outnumbered by the natives and enacted statutes (consonant with the 1366 Statutes of Kilkenny) that banned Irish people from living within the city limits or doing business there past daylight hours. The natives built their own shabbier town outside the walls. "Strasburg terrace," where Stephen's Aunt Sara lives with her husband Richie Goulding and their children, is a short row of townhouses slightly east of Irishtown Road, the avenue that bisects the town from north to south.

John Hunt 2019

Map of Irishtown showing approximate locations of Strasburg Terrace (blue), the intersection of Watery Lane and the Tritonville Road (red), and the London Bridge Road (purple) in a 1920 Bartholomew map of Dublin held in the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center of the Boston Public Library. Source: www.leventhalmap.org.

Stephen's walk on the strand as projected by Ian Gunn, suggesting how close he passes to Strasburg Terrace. Source: Gunn and Hart, James Joyce's Dublin.

Photograph of Strasburg Terrace taken by Patrick Healy in August 1979.
Source: source.southdublinlibraries.ie.

Strasburg Terrace today. Source: John Hunt.