The best death

Three times in the space of perhaps a minute or two, Bloom's thoughts about death––sudden death, infant death, suicide––bump up against the Catholic orthodoxy of the men riding with him in the funeral carriage. The Christians assume that the ethical issues posed by such deaths must be approached with reverence for divine law. As a freethinking atheist Bloom feels no such restraint. His responses are humanistic, and humane. 

John Hunt 2023

Detail of John Rocque's 1756 map of Dublin showing the crossroads at Ballybough Bridge, one of two sites at which suicides' bodies were buried. Source: eastwallforall.ie.

Nighttime burial of a suicide's body, artist and date unknown.
Source: eastwallforall.ie.