We received this 'tidbit' today in the morning mail. Thanks to Will Terrell by way of Wade Hutchens for the info.On June 16, James Joyce aficionados the world over celebrate Bloomsday.
For those of you not lucky enough to know about TN Alpha, they have called their "party area" (never a bar!) by the name "Ye Olde Shebeen" since since at least the 1950s. The tradition endures but many don't know the origin of the name.
The day is named after advertising salesman Leopold Bloom, protagonist of Joyce's novel Ulysses. The entirety of this book recounts an ordinary day, June 16, 1904, as various characters go about their ways in Dublin, Ireland.
If those 700+ pages are too much, here's an illustrated and irreverent summary of the book:
To mark Bloomsday this week we'll examine five words borrowed from the Irish language.
shebeen (shuh-BEEN) noun:
An unlicensed drinking establishment.
[From Irish sibin, diminutive of seibe (mug/mugful). The word is popular in the south of Africa and in Scotland and Ireland.]
Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=shebeen
-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
"The controversial drinking den has been raided four times since it opened two months ago. But shebeen operator Francis Kelly, 33, says it's a 'private club' for his pals -- and insists he doesn't sell any booze."
Owen Conlon; Shebeen and Gone; The Sun (UK); May 9, 2008.
