Michael Davitt was a leading figure in the Home Rule movement, and is especially remembered for his role as a revolutionary founder of the Land League. His unceasing efforts were instrumental to future Irish Land Acts after the Gladstone First Land Act of 1870.

 Charles Stewart Parnell was the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.  He led his party as a Member of Parliament from 1875 to his death in 1891. Gladstone described him as remarkable; Asquith said he was one of the three or four greatest men of his era. He was however involved in a scandal due to his marriage to a divorced woman.

The hornpipe was originally an old solo dance to the sound of the Celtic instrument of the same name. It is believed to have originated for exercise purposes on the confined decks of Royal Navy ships.

The sailor's hornpipe is featured in Popeye the Sailor Man, a Disney Cartoon released in 1930. Mike Oldfield included this tune in his Tubular Bells album.

Listen on Spotify:

Sailor's Hornpipe

Tubular Bells

 

The dance itself looks like this

Archibald Hamilton Rowan (1751-1834) was a radical and founder member of the Society of United Irishmen, who sought to establish a republic, along French Revolutionary lines, in Ireland. He is thought to have escaped arrest by throwing his hat on to the ha-ha (garden trench that serves in place of a fence), to make the English soldiers believe he had escaped in one direction while he ran off in another.

Wells's chestnut would be prized as a particularly good contender in the game of conkers, which is played across Ireland and Great Britain with nuts from Horse Chestnut trees. In the game, two contenders take turns to swing their conkers, which have been threaded on to string, at each others'; the person who breaks the other's conker is the winner.

A World Conkers Championship is held each year in Ashton. 

The schoolboys are split into different 'houses' which compete for points; the houses are named after the opposing sides in England's Wars of the Roses. 

This historical struggle for the throne of England was fought between the houses of York and Lancaster. It lasted from 1455 to 1485, when it was won by Henry Tudor from the house of Lancaster. He married Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the two families.

 

 

 

The pupils of Clongowes are divided into three classes, or 'lines'. Each line is further divided into two years. The names of the years are as follows:

1) Rudiments 

2) Grammar

3) Syntax

4) Humanities

5) Poetry

6) Rhetoric

Stephen is therefore looking up admiringly to the oldest two years in his school, the 17 and 18 year old boys.

Poetry gives them an insight into the aesthetic function of language.

Rhetoric, in the restricted sense, is Aristotle's well-known treatise on the art of persuasion. In the broader sense it is a discipline based on Aristotle's principles, standing alongside grammar and dialectic as one of the three ancient arts of discourse.

Trigonometry, a branch of mathematics concerned with the geometry of triangles, is also important for the shaping of logic in the mind of Stephen and his peers.

Turf, in this context, is peat. Dried peat was the main fuel burnt in the home.

 Corduroy is a ridged form of velvet and is considered a very durable cloth. It has other names, such as corded velveteen, elephant cord, pin cord and Manchester cloth.

The site mentioned here is historical as well as legendary. The 9th baronet of Donadea started building a circular tower on the hill. While digging for the foundation of the tower, a large coffin was unearthed which was said to contain the bones of Fionn mac Cumhaill - a famous warrior in Irish mythology.

 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (c.1471-1530) was an English statesman and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was unfortunate enough to hold the office when King Henry VIII of England wanted to separate from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. When Cardinal Wolsey could not find a way to permit this within the bounds of the Roman Catholic Church, Henry broke away from the Church and Wolsey fell from power. His offices and properties were stripped from him, and he might have lost his head as well if he hadn't fallen ill and died in Leicester.

It is uncertain whether these lyrics are from an actual song or were invented by Joyce.

The tune can be heard here.

The first riddle in  A Portrait.  The town of Athy ('a thigh') lies towards the south of the county.