In the first lines of the story, Joyce includes an allusion to British story papers:
It was Joe Dillon who introduced the Wild West to us. He had a little library made up of old numbers of The Union Jack, Pluck and The Halfpenny Marvel.
Story papers—called “dime novels” in the United States—were magazine-like publications popular in the 19th and 20th centuries that were geared toward children and included stories with illustrations. The three story papers that Joyce references here—The Union Jack, Pluck and The Halfpenny Marvel—featured many different types of adventure stories that would appeal to young boys, including romanticized tales about the “Wild West” in the United States.
Joyce’s decision to reference three story papers by name adds to the realism of the story—these were, in fact, very popular publications amongst children in Ireland at the time. The allusion also draws connections between Ireland and the United States, specifically the fact that the Irish people, like the Native Americans, were being oppressed by a colonial power. Despite the fact that the stories in these magazines glorified the power and might of the white American cowboy, the narrator and his friends all identify more with the Native Americans, as seen in their decision to “play” the role of “Indian” in their make-believe games.
When Father Butler finds Leo Dillon reading a children’s magazines about the Wild West, he chastises the boy, including an allusion to “National Schools” in the process:
—What is this rubbish? he said. The Apache Chief! […] Let me not find any more of this wretched stuff in this college. The man who wrote it, I suppose, was some wretched scribbler that writes these things for a drink. I’m surprised at boys like you, educated, reading such stuff. I could understand it if you were... National School boys. Now, Dillon, I advise you strongly, get at your work or...
National Schools were multi-denominational schools in Ireland started and run by the colonial English government. While some Irish people supported these schools due to their belief in the separation of church and state, others—especially Catholics—saw them as an affront to Irish identity and culture. Because the National Schools did not teach Gaelic and were run by English (Protestant) people, they were widely regarded as anti-Irish.
When Father Butler says that he “could understand” children reading the less-than-literary children’s magazines if they were “National School boys,” he is communicating his disdain for these schools, and for England’s colonial influence on Ireland more broadly. As a Catholic priest and teacher at a Catholic school, Father Butler has much to lose if England’s power in Irish society continues to grow via the state-funded network of National Schools. By including this allusion, Joyce highlights the tensions present in Ireland in the early 20th century and shows how Ireland’s conflict with England was a geopolitical as well as religious one.
In the first conversation between the narrator and the strange old man, the man alludes to the writers Thomas Moore, Sir Walter Scott, and Lord Lytton, as seen in the following passage:
[H]e began to talk of school and of books. He asked us whether we had read the poetry of Thomas Moore or the works of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Lytton. […] Of course, he said, there were some of Lord Lytton’s works which boys couldn’t read. Mahony asked why couldn’t boys read them – a question which agitated and pained me because I was afraid the man would think I was as stupid as Mahony. The man, however, only smiled […] Then he asked us which of us had the most sweethearts.
Moore, Scott, and Lytton are all well-known 19th century authors. Moore was an Irish writer known for his poetry, Scott was a Scottish novelist, and Lytton was an English politician turned writer whose work spanned genres (mystery, historical fiction, science fiction, poetry, and more). The particular histories of each writer are less important than the fact that the strange old man character has (he claims) read all of this classic Irish and British literature. That he can spout these names endears him to the narrator, who immediately doesn’t want to seem “stupid” in front of such a well-read man. For a moment, it seems this old man could be a model of maturity and healthy masculinity for the boy.
This passage takes a dark turn, however, when the man asks the boys “which of [them] has the most sweethearts.” This is the moment when it becomes clear that the man has only mentioned these literary figures in order to segue into an inappropriate conversation about sexuality with the two children. As he alludes to earlier in the passage, some of Lord Lytton’s work has sexual themes, and this is the reason the old man has mentioned the writer, not to connect with the children as a respectable, well-educated man might. In this way, the narrator ends his journey with disappointment, ultimately ending up feeling trapped in a conversation with a pedophile rather than finding true adventure.
When the narrator is describing the route he and his friends will take on their big adventure, he alludes to specific locations in Dublin:
With Leo Dillon and a boy named Mahony I planned a day’s miching. Each of us saved up sixpence. We were to meet at ten in the morning on the Canal Bridge […] We arranged to go along the Wharf Road until we came to the ships, then to cross in the ferryboat and walk out to see the Pigeon House.
During their “miching” (Irish slang for skipping school), the boys are going to start at Canal Bridge, walk along the Wharf Road, take a ferry, and end up at the Pigeon House. (Canal Bridge is likely a reference to what was formally referred to as Necombe Bridge.) Because these are all actual sites in Dublin, readers familiar with the city would quickly be able to discern that this journey is not feasible for a group of children to make, especially if they want to be home in time for dinner with their families. These allusions help readers understand, from the start of the story, that the narrator is inevitably going to end up disappointed.
While all of these locations have historical significance, the Pigeon House in particular is an important allusion for Joyce to include. While the Pigeon House started out as a place of lodging for Irish workers, it was turned into a military fort for English forces trying to prevent an Irish uprising, and, by the time that Joyce was writing, had transformed once again into a sewage and power plant. It’s likely that, in picking this location, Joyce was highlighting the slow disempowerment of the Irish people and the corresponding decay of the city of Dublin.
