A COLLISION ENSUES
The bell whirred again as he rang off. He came in quickly and bumped against Lenehan who was struggling up with the second tissue.
—Pardon, monsieur, Lenehan said, clutching him for an instant and making a grimace.
—My fault, Mr Bloom said, suffering his grip. Are you hurt? I’m in a hurry.
—Knee, Lenehan said.
He made a comic face and whined, rubbing his knee:
—The accumulation of the anno Domini.
—Sorry, Mr Bloom said.
He went to the door and, holding it ajar, paused. J. J. O’Molloy slapped the heavy pages over. The noise of two shrill voices, a mouthorgan, echoed in the bare hallway from the newsboys squatted on the doorsteps:
—We are the boys of Wexford Who fought with heart and hand.
annotation:
In this passage Joyce references a song called “The Boys Of Wexford” a poem by a traditional Irish poet named Robert Dwyer Joyce. I couldn’t find anything to state that they were actually related to each other. The song is a tribute to the Irish rebellion of 1798.<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/SmBTjeowz4k” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>