Life
c.1882-1933 [Eliza Ann Twigg; pseud. “Eilís ni Chraoibhin”]; b. in India, dg. of a British soldier who worked in Limerick as a clerk after the army; ed. Presentation Convent, Sexton St., Limerick; worked in Dublin and London; contrib. to Irish Rosary and United Irishman; protégee of George (“Æ”) Russell [q.v.] but appears to be have dropped - or even pushed - by the more nationalist writers on the Griffith’s paper (UI); issued Songs and Poems (Dublin 1904), with an introduction by Canon P. A. Sheehan [q.v.]; she appears to have fallen silent as a writer; best known as the occasion of a “coincidence” in James Joyce’s Ulysses; d. after long illness on 3 Jan. 1933, in Limerick. PI [WIKI]
James Joyce: In the “Lestrygonians” episode of Ulysses (1922), Bloom mentally compares Lizzie Twigg with Martha Clifford who has responded to an ad. placed by him in the newspaper - or, rather, vice-versa: ‘He [Bloom] passed the Irish Times. There might be other answers lying there. [...] Wanted smart lady typist to aid gentleman in literary work. I called you naughty darling because I do not like that other world. Please tell me what is the meaning. Please tell me what perfume does your wife. Tell me who made the world. The way they spring those questions on you. And the other one Lizzie Twigg. My literary efforts have had the good fortune to meet with the approval of the eminent poet A. E. (Mr Geo Russell). No time to do her hair drinking sloppy tea with a book of poetry.’ And again, later in the same chapter: ‘ And there he is too. Now that’s really a coincidence: second-time. Coming events cast their shadows before. With the approval of the eminent poet Mr Geo Russell. That might be Lizzie Twigg with him. A. E.: what does that mean? Initials perhaps. Albert Edward, Arthur Edmund, Alphonsus Eb Ed El Esquire. What was he saying? The ends of the world with a Scotch accent. Tentacles: octopus. Something occult: symbolism. Holding forth. She’s taking it all in. Not saying a word. To aid gentleman in literary work.’
“Nausikaa”: Joyce’s Bloom has further thoughts about Lizzie after his encounter with Gerty McDowell on Sandymount Strand which results in a covert orgasm and a good deal of reflection on female underwear: ‘Her stockings are loose over her ankles. I detest that: so tasteless. Those literary etherial people they are all. Dreamy, cloudy, symbolistic. Esthetes they are’ - and ’“Transparent stockings, stretched to breaking point. Not like that frump today. A. E. Rumpled stockings.” It is not impossible, though unlikely, that the real Lizzie Twigg came to know of her role in Bloom’s reflections on female attractions and the lack of them. [BS 16.09.2023.]
Reference
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), lists Songs and Poems, by Elis ni Chraoibhin (Dublin 1904), with introduction by Rev. Canon P. A. Sheehan, and calls her a frequent contributor to Irish papers.
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Notes
Sources: The above entry has been updated from the Wikipedia entry on - which contains a listing for the previous version of this page in its footnote references. Other sources lists there incl. Gerry O’Flaherty, ‘Reading Ulysses’, RTé1 (10 Nov. 2016); A. J. O’Halloran, ‘A gifted Poetess passes away in Limerick’, Limerick Leader (14 Jan. 1933); National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911[onine]; Zack Bowen, ‘Note: Lizzie Twigg: Gone but Not Forgotten’, in James Joyce Quarterly, 6:4 (1969), pp.368–70 [available at JSTOR - online];
Vivien Igoe, ‘Blazes Boylan, Skin-the-Goat and Frederick Sweny: the real people of ‘Ulysses’’, in The Irish Times (11 June 2016) [Culture] Late of retrieval for the majority of references: 10 November 2016; this update: 16.09.2023.
For an account of the dismissal of Lizzie Twigg from the panel of contributors to the United Irishman, see the “Blooms and Barnacles” blogsite - online - which includes a reconstructed photo-portrait and a sentence about her from Padraic Colum in 1969: ‘Everybody who met her liked her - because she was warm and outgoing. Here I am saying good things about Lizzie. Poor Liz - nobody remembers her now.’ (Incl. in Zack Bowen, 1969, as supra.)
What’s in a twig?: Eliza Twigg employed the nom de plume“Eilís ni Chraoibhin” - being a translation of her own name (where "twig! is a very small branch and craobh is a branch or tree in Irish. In so doing, she rhymed her pseudonym with that of Douglas Hyde’s who styled himself "An Craoibín" in many writings.
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