What happens at the Ormond Hotel in Ulysses?
The Ormond Hotel on Ormond Quay is the setting of Episode 11, “Sirens”. Bloom eats liver and bacon in the dining room while Simon Dedalus and Ben Dollard sing in the bar, and Boylan leaves to visit Molly.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 11, Sirens. The barmaids, at the window over the crossblind of the Ormond bar.
Bronze by gold, miss Douce’s head by miss Kennedy’s head, over the crossblind of the Ormond bar heard the viceregal hoofs go by, ringing steel.
What it means in plain English
It is about 4 pm. Bloom sees Boylan's straw hat and follows him in. He hears the songs and writes to Martha.
The hotel closed in the 2000s.
Literary context
Joyce's father drank at the Ormond.
References
- Ulysses, Episode 11, “Sirens”
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
What does Bloom eat at the Ormond?
Liver and bacon with mashed potatoes.
Related terms
“Bronze by gold”
“Bronze by gold” refers to the two barmaids of the Ormond Hotel, the bronze-haired Miss Douce and the golden-haired Miss Kennedy. The phrase opens Episode 11, “Sirens”, the musical episode, where Joyce writes prose as if it were a piece of music.
Simon Dedalus
Simon Dedalus is Stephen's father: charming, witty, a fine tenor, and a failed provider whose family lives in poverty. He rides in the funeral carriage with Bloom in Episode 6 and sings beautifully in the Ormond bar in Episode 11.
The Croppy Boy
“The Croppy Boy” is an Irish ballad about a young rebel of 1798 who goes to confession, only to find the priest is a British officer in disguise who has him hanged. Ben Dollard sings it in the Ormond bar in Episode 11, and the bar is moved to silence.
Blazes Boylan
Hugh “Blazes” Boylan is a flashy Dublin concert manager who is organising Molly Bloom's singing tour, and who becomes her lover at 4 pm on 16 June 1904. Bloom knows the meeting is coming and spends the day trying not to think about it.