“Striding past Finn’s Hotel, Cashel Boyle O’Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell stared through a fierce eyeglass across the carriages at the head of Mr E.M. Solomons in the window of the Austro-Hungarian viceconsulate” (Ulysses)
The link with Joyce’s subsequent Austro-Hungarian home in Trieste is coincidental but who were the Solomons family and what were their links with Joyce? E.M or Maurice Solomons was the patriarch of a distinguished Dublin Jewish family whose children included an Irish rugby player and only Jewish Master of the Rotunda (Bethel) and a celebrated artist (Estella). Whoever he was based on, Bloom was clearly not modelled on any of the Solomons, but both they and Joyce lived in the same circles in Dublin. Francis Jacobs’ talk explains the references to the Solomons in both Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake but also looks at the wider links between the Solomons and James Joyce, at the friends and acquaintances that they had in common and their strong social and cultural connections.
Francis Brendan Jacobs is the grandson of Sophie Solomons, who was the daughter of Maurice and Rosa Solomons and the younger sister of the artist Estella Solomons and of Edwin and Bethel Solomons. Francis is the only member of the Solomons family currently living in Dublin and is currently researching family history. Francis worked for the European Parliament from just before the first direct elections in 1979 until May 2016. Since his retirement he continues to give lectures and to write and is the author of several books. Francis has a great interest in history and is on the committee of the Ballsbridge Donnybrook and Sandymount Historical Society