In Sirens Lenehan finds flowery language to tell Simon Dedalus about his son's showing up in the newspaper office earlier in the day: "The élite of Erin hung upon his lips. The ponderous pundit, Hugh MacHugh, Dublin's most brilliant scribe and editor and that minstrel boy of the wild wet west who is known by the euphonious appellation of the O'Madden Burke." Like everything Lenehan says, his nickname for Burke is flashy and insubstantial but somewhat clever. He alludes to a popular nationalist song called The Minstrel Boy—and also, some annotators believe, to a less well-known one called The Men of the West. Burke is seen wearing "Donegal tweed" in Aeolus, so he may be from the west of Ireland, which is very wet indeed and also associated with Irish nationalism. The word "wild" could refer simply to the underpopulated harshness of the west, but it seems likely that Lenehan is echoing the fourth line of Moore's song, which sounds in Circe.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) published The Minstrel Boy in 1813 as part of his ongoing Irish Melodies project. It proved very popular in his day (he himself became known as "the minstrel boy") and has remained so. The anthem features a sword (the young singer has gone off to war to defend the freedom of his people) and a harp (the symbol of Ireland), both of which appear in Circe: 
"(Henry Flower combs his moustache and beard rapidly with a pocketcomb and gives a cow's lick to his hair. Steered by his rapier, he glides to the door, his wild harp slung behind him....)": 

The Minstrel-Boy to the war is gone,

In the ranks of death you'll find him;

His father's sword he has girded on,

And his wild harp slung behind him.

"Land of song!" said the warrior-bard,

"Tho' all the world betrays thee,

One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,

One faithful harp shall praise thee!"




The Minstrel fell!—but the foeman's chain

Could not bring that proud soul under;

The harp he lov'd ne'er spoke again,

For he tore its chords asunder;

And said, "No chains shall sully thee,

Thou soul of love and bravery!

Thy songs were made for the pure and free,

They shall never sound in slavery."

Burke enters the newspaper office in Aeolus with Stephen Dedalus in tow just as Lenehan is preparing to deliver his riddle. He is "tall in copious grey of Donegal tweed," and later Professor MacHugh remarks on the "loose ties" that both he and Stephen are sporting: "You look like communards. / — Like fellows who had blown up the Bastille, J. J. O'Molloy said in quiet mockery. Or was it you shot the lord lieutenant of Finland between you?" The association thus effected between political revoluion and Donegal—a Gaeltacht stronghold, and the only Ulster county that opted for independence in 1922—evidently has lodged in Lenehan's thoughts and suggested the phrase he tries out in Sirens.

One other detail accounts for his mention of Moore's song. Burke's name is "euphonious," and he speaks grandiloquently: "— I escort a suppliant, Mr O'Madden Burke said melodiously. Youth led by Experience visits Notoriety." Vivien Igoe observes that William O'Leary Curtis, on whom he was modeled, "is described as being widely read and having a pompous, full-mouthed manner of speech." An ardent nationalist, "O'Leary Curtis was the principal speaker at the Manchester Martyrs Commemoration at Bloomsbury Hall, Hart Street, Manchester in 1902." These revolutionary sympathies and musical turns of speech, both evoked by Moore's "wild harp," combine with Donegal to make Burke the minstrel boy of "the wild wet west."

The Donegal tweed would be sufficient to explain Lenehan's mention of the west, but Zack Bowen detects also an allusion to The Men of the West, a patriotic ballad about the 1798 Rebellion by William Rooney. He quotes the chorus:

I give you the gallant old West, boys,
Where rallied our bravest and best
When Ireland lay broken and bleeding;
Hurrah for the men of the West!

Nothing in the verses improves much on these dull plodding lyrics, and the melody lacks all the lyrical beauty of The Minstrel Boy. Since nothing but the word "West" can be tied to anything in Ulysses, I find Bowen's suggestion unpersuasive. Other annotators have taken different views. Gifford judges that Lenehan "may" be alluding to the song. Slote, Mamigonian, and Turner declare flatly that he is. Johnson and Kiberd mention only Moore's song. One thing is certain: Joyce knew Rooney's patriotic lyrics and detested them.

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John Hunt 2025