In a triumphal procession of political eminences leading up to Bloom's coronation, Circe includes two churchmen with identical titles: "His Eminence Michael cardinal Logue, archbishop of Armagh, primate of all Ireland, His Grace, the most reverend Dr William Alexander, archbishop of Armagh, primate of all Ireland." The solution to what may seem a paradox can be found in the fact that these two men come not from different historical eras but from different Christian demonimations. In Ireland both the Roman Catholic Church and the (protestant) Church of Ireland seat their ruling archbishops in the small northern city of Armagh.

Armagh's status as a holy site dates to pagan times. Its original, untransliterated name, Ard Mhacha or "Macha's height," refers to a shrine to the Ulster goddess Macha. In Christian times the church and monastery that Saint Patrick reportedly founded there became the most important ones in Ireland. During the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century Armagh became an English-controlled town and the cathedral became a Protestant holding. In the second half of the 19th century, Catholics built a new and grander St. Patrick's Cathedral on another hill, so now the town has two cathedrals with the same name. And two archbishops with the same title.

Michael Logue (1840-1924), a blacksmith's son from County Donegal, excelled as a scholar at Maynooth College, taught theology at the Irish College in Paris, and was ordained a priest of the Catholic church in December 1866. He became the archbishop of Armagh in December 1877 and was made a cardinal in 1893. His grave is in the grounds of the Catholic St. Patrick's cathedral in Armagh.

William Alexander (1824-1911), the son of an Ulster Scots minister in Derry, studied at Oxford, took holy orders in 1848, and became archbishop of Armagh in February 1896. In addition to eloquent sermons, he wrote several theological works and a large of body of accomplished poems. In a personal communication, Vincent Van Wyk points out that his grave is not in the cemetery of St. Columb's Cathedral in Derry, as Vivien Igoe has it, but in the Derry city cemetery. (However, as Van Wyk has showed me in person, a room in that cathedral does perpetuate the memory of the archbishop in a massive writing desk and a fine oil portrait.)

Shortly after these two primates are identified in the procession of worthies, they participate in the anointing of Bloom as Leopold the First, "emperor-president and king-chairman" of all Ireland. "WILLIAM, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH" administers an oath: "Will you to your power cause law and mercy to be executed in all your judgments in Ireland and territories thereunto belonging?" "MICHAEL, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH" pours "a cruse of hairoil" over Bloom's head and declares him anointed. Bloom's ascension is thus ratified by both of Ireland's major churches––though the oddly echoing manner in which the two prelates pop up may instead create the impression that he has been confirmed by Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Read More