Sir James W. Mackey

When Bloom thinks in Ithaca about all the flowers he will plant around his luxurious country cottage, he has a particular nursery in mind: "sir James W. Mackey Limited, wholesale and retail seed and bulb merchants and nurserymen, agents for chemical manures, 23 Sackville street, upper." This well-known shop, next door to the Gresham Hotel where Gretta and Gabriel stay in The Dead, had been in business at the Upper Sackville (or O'Connell) Street address since 1878. It housed "seedsmen," selective breeders offering both exotic plants and improved versions of familiar ones.

John Hunt 2020

The Mackey store at 23 Sackville Street Upper, date unknown. Source: Hazel Smyth, Two Hundred Years a-Growing.

The Gresham Hotel on fire in April 1922. Source: www.pinterest.com.