The logo of the morning newspaper that Bloom works for, the
Freeman's Journal, did
indeed show "a homerule sun rising up in the northwest from
the laneway behind the bank of Ireland," as he thinks in Calypso.
Arthur Griffith's witty
observation of that fact is consistent with the spirit of
irreverent mockery that Dubliners bring to their urban
landmarks and even to the most sacred subjects. But it
also expresses some particular nationalist disdain for this
newspaper.
Even if the geography was wrong, there were good iconographic
reasons for the composition of the image. The Freeman's
Journal was a leading nationalist newspaper, with a
history of espousing Irish independence that stretched back
for nearly 150 years. And "the bank of Ireland" was not chosen
as a site for the rising of the "homerule sun" because of its
commercial symbolism. This grand building in the heart of
Dublin was the meeting place of the Irish parliament until
that body was abolished by the Act
of Union in 1800, after which (now useless) it was sold
to the Bank of Ireland. Its splendid facade faces southeast,
so the creator of the image had little choice but to place his
symbolic sun where he did.
But in the later 19th century the Freeman's
editorial positions had become more conservative, and it had
come to be associated with the intransigent status quo. The
paper consistently gave more opposition than support to Charles Stewart Parnell's Home Rule
movement in the 1870s and 80s. Different anti-Parnellite
factions strugged for control of the paper after its 1892
merger with the National Press, and by 1904 the
editor, Thomas Sexton, had largely renounced the cause of
parliamentary reform.
Griffith's joke, then, probably reflects more than simply the
irreverent spirit of Irish wit. As an ardent and active
nationalist who headed his own newspaper, The United
Irishman, and who eventually became the first President
of the Irish Free State in 1922, Griffith undoubtedly shared
the jaded view of the Freeman held by many
Dubliners. To Myles Crawford (affectionately) and the Citizen
(contemptuously), it is "the old woman of Prince's
street."