The next three stories, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” “A Mother” and “Grace” are all significantly longer stories than those that have come before. While the average length of the first 11 stories is 3618 words (many of which are under 3000 words), the average of these three comes in at 5740 words. Therefore, I have decided not to include the full texts of these stories in reading tasks for this collection, as they do not work as well for this context. Instead, I have used fragments of all three as a comparative reading task similar to the second part of the reading section. For teachers and students who would like to go through the entire collection and read every story in full, the texts are available online.
“Ivy Day in the Committee Room” used to take place on the 6th of October, which was the day that Irish nationalist politician Charles Parnell died at age 45 in 1891. Throughout the 1880s, Parnell was the most prominent Irish leader who supported “home rule,” which, in an arrangement similar to that of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland since the 1990s, would have seen Ireland remain a part of the United Kingdom but have its own parliament to make decisions about local issues. However, in 1890, the country was divided when it was revealed that he had been in a long-term affair with a married woman named Katherine O’Shea and had even been the father of some of her children. The Catholic Church, along with a significant part of society, turned against Parnell, dividing the home rule movement. Parnell died of pneumonia a year later, and the issue of home rule languished for another few decades.
Parnell features heavily in Joyce’s work. He is discussed in great detail during a dinner party scene in his novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and some scholars believe the main character of his final book Finnegan’s Wake to be based on Parnell. For many Irish nationalists, Parnell remained a legendary figure and “Ivy Day” became an informal holiday. This story portrays the conversation of canvassers, political activists who go person to person convincing people to vote for a particular candidate, in the “committee room” of the party. A number of the canvassers seem to dislike the city council candidate who they are working for, complaining about his views, their low wages, and the fact that he has not sent them beer as promised. The overarching theme of “paralysis” throughout the collection is seen here as Irish politics have become directionless since the death of Parnell.
“A Mother” follows one Mrs. Kearney who is organizing a series of four concerts for an Irish nationalist society at which her daughter Kathleen, a fluent Irish speaker and rising star pianist thanks to the education that her mother has arranged for her, is slated to play at. However, the first two concerts are poorly attended, which leads to the third one being cancelled and lack of clarity over whether the society will pay Mrs. Kearney’s daughter the full agreed up amount. During the final concert, Kathleen is paid only half of the full amount and promised to be paid the rest after a meeting of the society committee. Outraged, Mrs. Kearney beings publicly insulting the leaders of the society, which causes Kathleen to be replaced as piano accompanist at the intermission and for her musical career to be likely ruined. Both the committee leaders and Mrs. Kearney believe that they have been treated deeply unfairly by the other, but it is not quite clear whose, if any, side the author expects readers to take.
“Grace” opens with a man who has lost consciousness and injured his tongue after falling down the stairs in a pub. A passerby recognizes him as a formerly well-respected businessman named Tom Kernan, and he is brought home by a friend of his named Jack Power who promises to Kernan’s wife that he and his friends will be able to help him change his alcoholic ways. A few days later, Power and a number of Kernan’s other friends come by to visit and are able to convince him to join them for a religious retreat for businessmen that will take place at a Jesuit church. The story is often interpreted to parallel the “fall of man” story from the Christian Bible – in this case, a man quite literally falling down some stairs.
First, here is a writing task based on the topic of "digital technology and social change." Although Dubliners takes place many decades before digital technology existed, the issues of social change are still as relevent today as they were then.
Writing Task: Digital Technology and Social Change
The first reading task task is based on a slightly edited section from a Wikipedia page outlining 19th century Irish history. As previously mentioned in the above notes to “Ivy Day,” members of the “home rule” movement sought to keep Ireland a part of the United Kingdom which would have its own parliament that could make decisions of local importance in an arrangement similar to that which had existed in Ireland before 1800 and has existed in Scotland, Wells, and Northern Ireland since the late 1990s. Home rule was opposed both by unionists, who wanted Ireland to continue to be directly controlled by British parliament, and those who wanted Ireland to become a fully independent republic. Dubliners was published in 1914, less than two years before the unsuccessful “Easter Rising” that eventually led to the War of Independence from 1919-1921; therefore, issues related to Ireland’s continued relationship with the United Kingdom dominated politics at that time.
Now, here are fragments from the three stories that are all roughly the length of fragments that have been used for the multiple-text reading tasks on the exam.
Reading Tasks: “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” “A Mother,” and “Grace”
For those who are able to read the full stories, here are a few discussion questions to consider:
About “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”:
• How important is it for people working on a political campaign to truly believe in the cause that they are working for?
• By having the men focused most intensely about the potential arrival of beer, what might the author be saying about the state of Irish politics?
• How does the focus on Parnell, who had died more than a decade previously, have to do with the collection’s overall theme of “paralysis”?
About “A Mother”:
• Do you agree with Mrs. Kearney’s parenting style? Why or why not?
• Mrs. Kearney is one of only three female protagonists in Dubliners, along with Eveline (from “Eveline”) and Maria (from “Clay”). Compare and contrast her with these other female characters.
• At the end of the story, does the author expect readers to sympathise with Mrs. Kearney or with the members of the society committee? Support your answer.
About “Grace”:
• To what extent can someone’s bad behaviour be blamed on the people that they spend time with?
• Why do you think the author have the men all drinking alcohol during their intervention for their friend who suffers from a serious drinking problem?
• Do you think that Mr. Kernan is able to change his ways after the intervention by his friends? Why or why not?
Finally, here are three speaking tasks that you can use to practice for the exam. Each is based on a topic central to one of the stories.
Speaking Task: Youth Engagement in Politics
Speaking Task: The Importance of Music
Speaking Task: Helping Friends
Now you can continue on to the final story of the collection: "The Dead."