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“OMNIUM GATHERUM”

227

(2008: 151). In spite of this, the pressmen possessed as

immense power at the turn of the century as they did several

decades before. George Russell concurs that this power was

“greater than that of any public men, who, to a great extent,

rise and fall at [journalists’] bidding” (cited in Kershner, 2010:

83).

Joyce is aware of the great power the pressmen possess.

7

James A. Reppke argues that Joyce recognizes journalism’s

potential in shaping the changing world, and is attracted to

newspapers “because he saw them as being at the center of

almost everything” (2008: 464). Newspapers, Reppke rightly

writes, could be deemed to be at the center of almost

everything, for, as Declan Kiberd observes, the text of

Ulysses

shows that so many aspects of Dubliners’ life depend on the

mediation of papers that the inhabitants could no longer

understand their city without the service of the media (2000:

467).

8

In “Aeolus,” Joyce makes substantial allusions to the

press and writes about newspapermen, deriving material from

actual visits to the

Evening Telegraph

office in 1909 (Béaslaí,

1990: 41-43). If, as Kershner suggests, the true subject of

“Aeolus” is the city (2010: 111), we may argue that it is the

press which dominates the city, a fact indicating the

significance of the press and pressmen in turn-of-the-century

Dublin.

The Aeolus who presides over the office of the

Evening

Telegraph

(the evening version of the

Freeman’s Journal

)

9

is

7

Joyce, in actuality, was closely related to the newspaper industry. Through

his father’s friends, he had plenty of connections to the press (Kershner,

2010: 80-81). The young Joyce even considered journalism as a career path

(Collier, 2006: 114). For a detailed portrait of Joyce as a journalist, see

Reppke (2008: 459-467).

8

For example, the funeral of Paddy Dignam, the results of the Gold cup, and

so on.

9

Sharing offices in the same building, the two newspapers were owned by the

same company, Freeman’s Journal, Ltd., which also published

Sport

and