“The Day of the Rabblement.”

James Joyce

“The Day of the Rabblement.”

In Two Essays. Dublin

Gerrard Bros.

1901

In his second appearance in print, James Joyce attacked the Irish Literary Theatre for catering to popular audiences and for its refusal to produce plays by modern, European writers like Henrik Ibsen. Ireland, he wrote, “affords no literary model to the artist, and he must look abroad.” After his essay’s rejection at his college’s journal, Joyce had it privately published together with one by his schoolboy friend, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, who was later executed during the Easter Rising.