The Donnybrook fair was established by royal charter in 1204,
during the reign of England's King John. For two weeks from
late August to mid-September people gathered in large numbers
to buy and sell food, livestock, and other agricultural goods,
and by the 19th century there were many carnival amusements,
but the fair was also an annual occasion for immoderate
drinking, cock-fighting, gambling, loud music, dancing,
flirtation, outright fornication, and fighting with fists and
shillelaghs. In response to the protests of decent citizens,
many attempts were made to abolish the fair in the first half
of the 19th century. The Dublin
Corporation finally succeeding in shutting it down in
1855, by buying the license from its current owners for
£3,000.
Two quotations in a 2012 blog on the fair by Ciarán on the
website comeheretome.com give a sense of the mayhem that
occurred annually when hordes of Dubliners tramped the dusty
road to Donnybrook. On 31 August 1778, the Freeman’s Journal
remarked on the pilgrims returning from this modern Gomorrah:
“How irksome it was to friends of the industry and well-being
of Society to hear that upwards of 50,000 persons visited the
fair on the previous Sunday, and returned to the city like
intoxicated savages.” In his 1867 book The English
Constitution, Walter Bagehot observed that the first
principle of the fair was "Wherever you see a head, hit it.”
At the end of Lotus Eaters Leopold Bloom, decent
citizen, thinks that the civilized sport of cricket does not
fit well with Irish sensibilities: "Donnybrook fair more in
their line." He goes on to recall a popular song: "And
the skulls we were acracking when M'Carthy took the floor."
Anarchic Ireland has its revenge in Circe, when Bloom,
on trial for his sins and sexual abnormalities, is assaulted
by "THE IRISH EVICTED TENANTS": "(In bodycoats,
kneebreeches, with Donnybrook fair shillelaghs.) Sjambok
him!"
By 1904 Donnybrook had outgrown its scruffy past to become a
fairly comfortable middle-class suburb on a par with other
southern towns like Rathgar, Rathmines, Terenure, and
Sandymount. Its name appears along with other tramline
destinations in Aeolus, and Sirens indicates
that the car which carries Blazes Boylan to his assignation
with Molly is driven by one James Barton of "number one
Harmony avenue, Donnybrook." It would appear that the
narrative supplies this detail, and repeats it in Circe,
because drivers of jaunting
cars were required to display a numbered license that
listed the driver's name and address.
The National Library of Ireland Flickr page details some good
detective work on the 20th century photograph displayed with
this note: "Our catalogue described this as a Street
scene, possibly in Dublin: with motor cars, pedestrians and
tramlines. I knew we could do better than that, hoping J.
McCaffrey at no. 39 would be a help. I was thinking
Terenure-ish, but was absolutely wrong! Thanks a million
to DannyM8 who suggested Donnybrook, and then backed
it up with hard evidence from the 1911 census, finding John
McCaffrey, greengrocer, at 39 Donnybrook Road! With
regard to an accurate date for this photo, one of the Irish Times news
posters trumpets "Religious War in Mexico," and exactly that
headline appeared on page 8 of the Irish Times on
Monday, 15 August 1927, so that seems relatively safe for
dating. . . . P.S. Love the alleged Confesserie! Did you
confess your guilt for guzzling cream cakes here?"
