And why did January 1st become New Year’s Day? Hogmanay is the word used to describe the very distinctive Scottish celebration of New Years’s Eve. This includes the singing of Auld Lang Syne while linking arms — a tradition has spread across the world. Other famous customs include ‘first-footing’ —…

The Beatles played 292 times at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in just two years. Their last performance was on Saturday, August 3rd, 1963. The speed at of The Beatles national rise to fame caught the Cavern Club management by surprise. They had intended to use the The Beatles…

How Lennon & McCartney gave the Stones their first Top 20 single In an interview with Playboy (1980) John Lennon, gave his account of how Lennon & McCartney came to write ‘I Wanna be your Man’ for their nearest musical rivals, The Rolling Stones. Paul and I finished that one…

Bloom as the ‘dark horse’ outsider One of the most extraordinary features of Ulysses is the subtle way in which real people, places and events are woven into its fabric. On the 16 June 1904 the Ascot Gold Cup race takes place, near London. The event is followed closely by…

A troubled Stephen Dedalus is back in Dublin after the death of his mother. — Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:- Introibo ad altare Dei. Listen a…

Did James Joyce speak Irish? His census entry does not tell the full story According to the Census of 1901, nineteen-year-old James Joyce was a speaker of English and Irish. This was, as the Irish would put it, a cod or fanciful exaggeration. …

A made-to-measure second language? Or a nightmarish vehicle for thought control? — The story of the early life of L.L. Zamenhof, the man who invented Esperanto, has a bleak modern resonance. He came from Bialystok, then part of the Russian Empire but now part of Poland. The place where I was born and spent my childhood gave direction to all my future…

Five phrases associated with the disaster are still in common use 1. And the band played on. The image of the orchestra playing as the ship sank, symbolises heroic selflessness and courage. As a contemporary newspaper put it: the part played by the orchestra on board the Titanic in her last dreadful moments will rank among…

Pop stars were not supposed to get married. Five weddings and a divorce later… In November 1961, Brian Epstein agrees to manage The Beatles — on condition that they sharpen up their act and their appearance. No more leathers or eating on stage or chatting with the audience. The new…