'As I was going down Sackville Street': Joyce's O'Connell Street

Abstract: This article explores the references to and resonances of Dublin's O'Connell Street in Joyce's work, arguing that it epitomizes the Joycean paradigm of thwarted potential. This allows the material existence of the city to enter a dialogue with Joyce's writing. The street often embodies the conflicts and debates of public life in Ireland, and this is apparent in Joyce's depictions, which frequently afford it this symbolic position. This article considers the development of the street as part of a broader programme of city planning and its subsequent changes in architectural style and name; its eventual development as a transport hub is particularly significant, as Joyce frequently approaches it through the role of trams, which enact the street's dialectic of dynamism and stasis, in turn allowing it to become symbolic of paralysis. From the period preceding Irish independence onwards, O'Connell Street has become a common site for major monuments, and Joyce also uses these to explore the historical and political resonances of the street. This article looks at the role of individual monuments in constructing Joyce's view of Irish identity, with O'Connell Street's axis of statues allowing broader historical perspectives to emerge. The street's role in the Easter Rising underlines this historical significance, and alongside the subsequent reconstruction of the area, this is related to Joyce's notion of the street as a contested space.