As a few minor politicians discuss child-rearing and bicker about defending a rival candidate, one, Joe Hynes, reminds them it is Ivy Day, in memory of Charles Stewart Parnell. A silence falls on the room briefly, before the politicians resume their bad-mouthing and discussions. Critically acclaimed author James Joyce's Dubliners is a collection of short stories depicting middle-class life in Dublin in the early twentieth century. First published in 1914, the stories draw on themes relevant to the time such as nationalism and Ireland's national identity, and cement Joyce's reputation for brutally honest and revealing depictions of everyday Irish life.
