“The Croppy Boy” is an Irish folk song about a young revolutionary (or “croppy”) who participated in the failed Irish Rebellion of 1798. The young man stops in a church to confess his sins, but he doesn’t realize that the priest is actually a British soldier in disguise. The soldier arrests the young croppy and takes him away to be executed.
“The Croppy Boy” Quotes in Ulysses
The Ulysses quotes below are all either spoken by “The Croppy Boy” or refer to “The Croppy Boy”. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Episode 11: Sirens
Quotes
Bronze by gold heard the hoofirons, steelyringing.
Imperthnthn thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips.
Horrid! And gold flushed more.
A husky fifenote blew.
Blew. Blue bloom is on the.
Goldpinnacled hair.
A jumping rose on satiny breast of satin, rose of Castile.
Trilling, trilling: Idolores.
Peep! Who’s in the … peepofgold?
Tink cried to bronze in pity.
And a call, pure, long and throbbing. Longindying call.
Decoy. Soft word. But look: the bright stars fade. Notes chirruping answer.
O rose! Castile. The morn is breaking.
Jingle jingle jaunted jingling.
[…]
Done.
Begin!
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Ulysses LitChart as a printable PDF.
“The Croppy Boy” Term Timeline in Ulysses
The timeline below shows where the term “The Croppy Boy” appears in Ulysses. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Episode 11: Sirens
At Tom Kernan and Simon Dedalus’s request, Ben Dollard sings “ The Croppy Boy ,” an old Irish ballad about a young soldier betrayed by a British spy posing...
(full context)
As Dollard approaches the end of “ The Croppy Boy ,” Bloom realizes that he—like the character in the song—is the “last of his name...
(full context)
“ The Croppy Boy ” is about to end, and Bloom wants to get out of the bar before...
(full context)
Episode 15: Circe
...good as green (Ireland). The citizen materializes to voice his opposition to the English, and the croppy boy pops up, only for the “demon barber” H. Rumbold to hang and disembowel him.
(full context)
