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Synopsis
by Gerry O'Flaherty
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| Amiens
Street Station |
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It is
1 am on the morning of 17 June. Bloom helps Stephen to his feet.
Stephen wants something to drink so they set out for the cabman's
shelter near the Liffey. Bloom gives Stephen some fatherly advice
and points out how all of his companions have deserted him.
At the loopline railway bridge, Corley, who figures in the story
'Two Gallants' in Dubliners, accosts Stephen and tells him his
hard luck story. Stephen lends him half-a-crown. Bloom speaks
of Mulligan's bad behaviour at Westland Row station where there
seems to have been a quarrel in which Stephen's hand was hurt.
In
the shelter Bloom buys Stephen coffee and a bun. A sailor asks
Stephen his name and claims to have known a Simon Dedalus who
was a sharpshooter in Hengler's Royal Circus in Stockholm. He
tells a number of other unlikely stories about his travels.
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| Georges
Church |
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Talk
turns on maritime affairs and Skin-the-Goat, who is in charge of
the shelter and was one of the Invincibles, says that Britain is
exploiting Ireland. The sailor's counter claim that the Irish are
the backbone of the Empire is not well received by those in the
shelter. Bloom pays the bill and invites Stephen to come home with
him.
Stephen
agrees because he has nowhere else to go. On the way to Eccles
Street, the two talk of music and poetry, but, although the discussion
is friendly, there is no meeting of minds.
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| 'Cabby's
Shelter |
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In
the Homeric correspondence Odysseus/Bloom returns home to Ithaca/Eccles
Street, disguised as a beggar. He goes to the hut of the swineherd
Eumaeus/Skin-the-Goat and tells a false story of his travels.
When Telemacus/Stephen arrives they set off for home together
to destroy the suitors of Penelope/Molly.
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Skin the Goat was the nickname of James
Fitzharris who drove the decoy cab on the night
of the Phoenix Park Murders. The getaway cab
was driven in a more circuitous route through the
city by Michael Kavanagh, as Myles Crawford
describes in the 'Aeolus' episode. Fitzharris
was sentenced to life in prison as an accessory to
murder, but was released in 1902. It is thought that
instead of being the keeper of the cabman's shelter,
he was in fact employed by Dublin Corporation as a
night-watchman.
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