Derevaun Seraun

A fascinating story of (over)interpretation by critics, analysed by an Irish-language expert. ‘As is always the case with Irish, the anglophone world is never slow to project all kinds of ridiculous fantasies onto our language.’ ‘… I think he was spot-on when he said that the phrase was ‘probably gibberish’. It’s meant to sound Irish without meaning anything. It suggests Irish but leaves the whole thing open to interpretation. I imagine that Joyce chose these meaningless Irish-sounding words very carefully, knowing that a tantalising puzzle with no solution would have critics of his work swarming all over it like flies on shite.’