BARRINGTON'S LEMON SOAP

Click on any image for a larger version

[Quote from Joyce's Ulysses]

Having set the halffilled kettle on the now burning coals, why did he return to the stillflowing tap?
To wash his soiled hands with a partially consumed tablet of Barrington's lemonflavoured soap, to which paper still adhered (bought thirteen hours previously for fourpence and still unpaid for)
[from Ithica :593]

[End of quote from Ulysses]

I bought my first ever bar of Barrington's lemonflavoured soap from PJ Murphy in Sweny's yesterday.

Unlike Leopold Bloom, I paid for it on the spot and was glad to do so.

This is not just Joycean soap. It is family soap to me and will be treasured accordingly.

John Barrington was a chandler with premises in Great Britain Street (now Parnell Street). My great-grandmother, Sarah Rankin, was in domestic service in his household and married out of there in 1866.

The previous year, Barrington had been Lord Mayor of Dublin and was subsequently knighted for his service to Prince Albert who visited the capital in 1865.

Sarah Rankin married Christopher Burgess, a shoemaker at Wood Quay but subsequently a master bootmaker in James's Street.

Barrington moved to Killiney to a house called St. Anne's, which you can see here to the right of the Martello Tower and with its own custom tower.

He later moved to Santa Severina, now Summerhill, just a stone's throw down the road.

After Barrington's death, his widow moved to Campanella, just a further stone's throw away.

In 1954, when we moved to Ballybrack, my mother, Sarah Rankin's grand-daughter, ran the newsagent's shop, and among her customers was Miss Barrington from Campanella.

That's service spanning three generations.

And as for the soap, well, it's no longer made by Barrington but PJ assures me that it's as close to his formula as currently feasible.

And Joyce? Well, I told this story in my contribution to the 2018 Bloomsday event at the Martello Tower. Check out Episode 8.

PJ Murphy behind the counter at Sweny's
Photo: Courtesy of Sweny's Pharmacy

Please support Sweny's Pharmacy.

Update - 3 November 2019

PJ singing a song as Gaeilge
for two visiting Americans from Ohio

I dropped in on my way to a session on Newstalk's Talking History with Patrick Geoghegan. I got two more bars of lemon soap, one for Patrick (presenter) and one for Sue (producer). The true scent of history.