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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