What is Holles Street in Ulysses?
Holles Street is the home of the National Maternity Hospital, where Episode 14 takes place at about 10 pm. Bloom visits to ask after Mina Purefoy, who is in labour, and finds Stephen drinking with medical students.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 14, Oxen of the Sun. Mrs Breen, telling Bloom about Mrs Purefoy in Lestrygonians.
She’s in the lying-in hospital in Holles street. Dr Horne got her in.
What it means in plain English
A “lying-in hospital” is a maternity hospital. The students' rowdy talk shocks Bloom, who thinks of Rudy.
After the birth they all rush out to Burke's pub.
Literary context
The hospital still stands and is still known as Holles Street.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 8 and 14
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
Who is giving birth?
Mina Purefoy, after three days of labour.
Related terms
Deshil Holles Eamus
“Deshil Holles Eamus” is the chant that opens Episode 14. It mixes Irish (“deiseal”, turning right, sunwise, for luck), the name of Holles Street, where the maternity hospital stands, and Latin “eamus” (“let us go”): roughly, “let us go to Holles Street, sunwise.”
Hoopsa boyaboy hoopsa
“Hoopsa boyaboy hoopsa!” is the midwife's cry as she lifts a newborn boy, repeated three times near the opening of Episode 14. It anticipates the birth of Mina Purefoy's son later in the episode.
Parody of English prose styles (Oxen of the Sun)
Episode 14, “Oxen of the Sun”, imitates the history of English prose in order, from Latin-flavoured early writing through Malory, Bunyan, Swift and Dickens to modern slang. The growth of style mirrors the growth of a baby in the womb, as Mina Purefoy gives birth.