Why is Parnell important in Ulysses?
Charles Stewart Parnell led the Irish fight for Home Rule until 1890, when his affair with Katharine O'Shea was exposed and the Church and his party turned on him. He died in 1891. In Ulysses, he is everywhere: a lost leader, a betrayed man, and a symbol of Ireland's divisions.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Mr Deasy, lecturing Stephen about the role of women in history.
A woman too brought Parnell low.
What it means in plain English
His grave is at Glasnevin, and some at the funeral believe he is not really dead. His brother John is seen in Wandering Rocks.
Bloom remembers once picking up Parnell's hat in a crowd, and being thanked.
Literary context
Joyce wrote his first poem, “Et Tu, Healy”, at nine about Parnell's betrayal.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 2, 6, 10, 16 and 17
- Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (revised edition, 1982)
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Questions readers ask
When did Parnell die?
In October 1891.
Related terms
Mr Deasy
Garrett Deasy is the headmaster of the school in Dalkey where Stephen teaches in Episode 2. A pompous Ulster unionist, he pays Stephen his wages, lectures him on thrift, blames women and Jews for history's disasters, and asks him to place a letter about foot-and-mouth disease in the papers.
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin is Dublin's great Catholic cemetery, where Paddy Dignam is buried in Episode 6. Bloom watches the burial, thinks about death with frank curiosity, and notices a stranger in a macintosh. Parnell and O'Connell are buried there too.
“We can't change the country. Let us change the subject”
“We can't change the country. Let us change the subject.” Stephen says it to Bloom in the cabman's shelter in Episode 16, around 1 am. Tired and unwilling to discuss Ireland, he ends Bloom's earnest talk about politics with a weary joke.