"Bride street" is a street on the eastern edge of the Liberties district, just
north of St. Patrick's Cathedral. In 1904 it was a blighted
area, full of tenements. The novel visits this part of town
several times, first in connection with two women whom Stephen
sees walking out onto Sandymount Strand, and later in
connection with Bob Doran's annual bender.
In Proteus Stephen assigns Mrs. Florence MacCabe to
an address on this street. She appears to be a poor but
respectable widow. Bob Doran, however, goes there in search of
female companionship when he is around the bend. In Wandering
Rocks we hear that "Blazes Boylan waylaid Jack
Mooney's brother-in-law, humpy, tight, making for the
liberties." It is not the first time. The narrator
in Cyclops recalls the "Night he was near being
lagged only Paddy Leonard knew the bobby, 14A. Blind
to the world up in a shebeen in Bride street after closing
time, fornicating with two shawls and a bully on guard,
drinking porter out of teacups." In the narrator's
account, the two prostitutes were picking the polluted Doran's
pockets while they played along with his games.
