What is the Freeman's Journal in Ulysses?
The Freeman's Journal was a Dublin nationalist daily newspaper. Bloom sells advertising space for it, carries a copy all day, and visits its offices in Episode 7, “Aeolus”, which is set in the Freeman and Evening Telegraph building.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Bloom on his morning walk, with the paper in his pocket.
As he walked he took the folded Freeman from his sidepocket, unfolded it, rolled it lengthwise in a baton
What it means in plain English
He uses the paper as a baton, reads its adverts, and hides Martha's letter in it.
The Aeolus episode opens with a headline: “IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS”.
Literary context
The paper closed in 1924.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 4, 5 and 7
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
What is Bloom's job?
He canvasses for adverts for the Freeman.
Related terms
In the heart of the Hibernian metropolis
“IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS” is the first headline in Episode 7, “Aeolus”. Joyce breaks the episode into short sections under newspaper-style headings, matching its setting in a newspaper office, and the headlines get wilder as it goes on.
K.M.R.I.A.
K.M.R.I.A. stands for “kiss my royal Irish arse”. It is the editor Myles Crawford's reply, in Episode 7, when Bloom asks him to give Alexander Keyes a free puff in the paper to win an advertisement. Bloom quietly decides it is not a good moment to ask.
Plumtree's Potted Meat
Plumtree's Potted Meat is a tinned meat product whose advert Bloom reads in the Freeman's Journal in Episode 5. The slogan, “What is home without Plumtree's Potted Meat? Incomplete”, becomes a joke about his own home: that afternoon Boylan visits Molly, and leaves the empty tin.