Ivy Day in the Committee Room

“Mr. O’Connor had been engaged by Mr. Tierney’s agent to canvass one part of the ward but, as the weather was inclement and his boots let in the wet, he spent a great part of the day sitting by the fire in the Committee Room in Wicklow Street with Jack, the old caretaker.”

Mr. O’Connor is introduced as shirking his work as a canvasser for the Nationalist political candidate Mr. Tierney. Because the weather is bad, he sits inside and listens to the stories and troubles of an everyday workingman. This early passage sets up Mr. O’Connor as an ambivalent figure, as he has political beliefs but is shown as unwilling to sacrifice his personal comfort in support of the cause. This is part of Joyce’s realistic and complex portrayal of political action.

“He takes th’upper hand of me whenever he sees I’ve a sup taken. What’s the world coming to when sons speak that way to their father?”

Old Jack’s troubles with his alcoholic son mirror his wariness of Mr. Hynes’s politics. The youthful rebelliousness that Mr. Hynes expresses towards British rule reminds Old Jack of his own son’s disobedient behavior. Old Jack’s generational complaint plays into the story’s treatment of nostalgia for times gone by, a feeling that can create both dissatisfaction and inertia.

“Sure, amn’t I never done at the drunken bowsy ever since he left school? I won’t keep you, I says. You must get a job for yourself. But, sure, it’s worse whenever he gets a job; he drinks it all.”

This passage emphasizes the cyclical nature of addiction and poverty. Old Jack’s son is able to work, but his alcoholism prevents him from living an independent life. Joyce critiques the role of alcohol in his short story and the hypocrisy of those who criticize others for drunkenness: The story shows that the middle-class men are paid by the candidate in drink (porter, a dark malted beer, was a very strong beer in pre-war years). They talk about the urgency of needing alcoholic drink, and the story explores the role of alcohol both as an aid to social bonding and a social ill.

“Hasn’t the working-man as good a right to be in the Corporation as anyone else—ay, and a better right than those shoneens that are always hat in hand before any fellow with a handle to his name?”

A “shoneen” is a slur for an Irish person who is self-interestedly supportive of the British administration. Mr. Hynes expresses his disdain for those who grovel before the British elites to obtain positions and prestige. Joyce highlights a paradox about the methods of increasing independent influence in Ireland: At the time, one needed to be well-connected to the Anglo-Irish governing class to obtain any form of political status.

“The working-man, said Mr. Hynes, gets all kicks and no half-pence. But it’s labour produces everything. The working-man is not looking for fat jobs for his sons and nephews and cousins. The working-man is not going to drag the honour of Dublin in the mud to please a German monarch.”

Mr. Hynes explains his rationale for supporting Colgan, the working-class candidate for the Dublin Corporation, and voices his disdainful opinion of the king of Britain and Ireland (the “German monarch”). This refers to the fact that King Edward is descended from the House of Hanover (through his mother, Queen Victoria) and the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas (through his father, Prince Albert). Moreover, while the indigenous people of Ireland trace their ancestry back to the Gaelic Celts, the English tend to be of Germanic ethnic descent (such as the Anglo-Saxons). Though the story is set in 1902 or 1903, at the time of publication in June 1914, Britain was on the eve of war with Germany. World War I was declared in July 1914.

“Oh, he’s as tricky as they make ‘em, said Mr. Henchy. He hasn’t got those little pigs’ eyes for nothing. Blast his soul! Couldn’t he pay up like a man instead of: O, now Mr. Henchy, I must speak to Mr. Fanning…I’ve spent a lot of money. Mean little shoeboy of hell! I suppose he forgets the time his little old father kept the hand-me-down shop in Mary’s Lane.”

This passage is one of many expostulations belonging to Mr. Henchy. The dialogue here is characteristic of Mr. Henchy and is part of framing him as the most open and opinionated character in the group. Here, he is voicing his displeasure with Mr. Tierney for not being paid for his canvassing that day, calling his employer names and mocking his appearance. However, a few pages later, Mr. Henchy changes his mind regarding Mr. Tierney’s character when the delivery of porter arrives. This is part of Joyce’s presentation of social class and political allegiance in Dublin, a close-knit community.

“Damn it, I can understand a fellow being hard up but what I can’t understand is a fellow sponging. Couldn’t he have some spark of manhood about him?”

This is spoken by Mr. Henchy about Mr. Hynes, who has just left the room. He is speaking to Mr. O’Connor. Mr. Tierney’s agent employs all three men to canvass, and they are in a similar position of dependence, but Mr. Henchy and Mr. O’Connor accuse Mr. Hynes of “sponging,” i.e., expecting money or favors without doing the work expected. This is hypocritical of them, especially Mr. O’Connor, who habitually shirks his work. The men’s criticism of Mr. Hynes, and their discussion of whether he is a spy for “the Castle” (the British administration), contrasts with them pressing him to recite his poem to Parnell later when he comes back into the room. Joyce’s choice of phrase “spark of manhood” prefigures the heroic imagery of the poem: Putting this phrase in Mr. Henchy’s mouth as a criticism is part of the story’s cynical treatment of the men’s ambivalent relationship to each other and their political ideals.

“That’s the way it begins,” said the old man.

Old Jack voices his displeasure with the young delivery boy drinking the beer Mr. Henchy has given him, suggesting that it leads to a dependence on alcoholism. Joyce’s treatment here is ironic, as both Old Jack and Mr. O’Connor have been complaining that they have no drink: When it arrives, they drink immediately and with “satisfaction.” Old Jack criticizes the boy for drinking, although he is himself preoccupied with needing a drink.

“What I mean, said Mr. Lyons, is we have our ideals. Why, now, would we welcome a man like that? Do you think now after what he did Parnell was a fit man to lead us? And why, then, would we do it for Edward the Seventh?”

Mr. Lyons alludes to the fact that Parnell’s political downfall was largely due to the scandal of his adultery and the resulting divorce of his married lover, Kitty O’Shea. In 1902, divorce and adultery were still considered immoral, especially in a largely Catholic country, and Mr. Lyons expresses the opinion that Parnell’s personal life made him an unfit political leader. He is not pro-Parnell, but he refutes the claim of King Edward by suggesting that the two leaders are morally as bad as each other.

“Our side of the house respects him because he was a gentleman.”

Mr. Crofton is alluding to the fact that Parnell came from a well-connected Anglo-Irish Protestant family in Ireland, and that Mr. Crofton’s side (the Conservatives) tend to be drawn from the same social and political class. Parnell had used these connections to strengthen his political power and gain influence as a Westminster MP in order to further the cause of Irish Home Rule.

“He is dead. Our Uncrowned King is dead.

O, Erin, mourn with grief and woe

For he lies dead whom the fell gang

Of modern hypocrites laid low.”

These are the opening lines of “The Death of Parnell.” Here, the metaphorical title for Parnell, “Uncrowned King,” is an example of Joyce’s creation of an elegiac poem, a verse that laments the death of a public figure and lauds their achievements. The reference to “modern hypocrites” encapsulates the story’s consideration of political nostalgia, cultural resonance, and modern pragmatism within the republican cause.

“Shame on the coward caitiff hands

That smote their Lord or with a kiss

Betrayed him to the rabble-rout

of fawning priests—no friends of his.”

In this stanza, Joyce explicitly condemns the orthodox Catholic way of thinking surrounding divorce and extramarital affairs. The harsh reaction of the Catholic Church in Ireland after Parnell’s scandal damaged his political image and was a leading factor in his fall from power. Many Parnellites felt that the anti-Parnell movement within Ireland (particularly more militant and Catholic factions) used the details of Parnell’s personal life cynically to discredit him politically.

“And on that day may Erin well

Pledge in the cup she lifts to Joy

One grief—the memory of Parnell.”

Mr. Hynes’s poem laments that Parnell will never see any independent Ireland in the future and frames this fact as a stain on the republican cause. The poem asserts that Parnell should be remembered as a tragic figure, defeated by the internal conflicts within the nation he strove to liberate.