Mooney's en ville and in Mooney's sur mer(French) Mooney's-in-town and in Mooney's-on-the-sea.[1] Lenehan is whimsically referring to two public houses in the city centre:[2]
J. G. Mooney & Co., Wine and Spirit Merchants, 1 Lower Abbey Street.
Gerald Mooney, Publican, 3 Eden Quay.
The latter is situated on one of the River Liffey's quays — hence it is sur mer — while the former is "landlocked". See 138.13.
élite(French) a group of people with superior intellectual, social or economic status in society. The members of Lenehan's élite of Erin are hardly superior to their fellow Irishmen in any of these categories.
↑Thoms, Official Directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: Dublin (1903) pp. 1407 and 1481. Ian Gunn & Clive Hart, James Joyce's Dublin (2004) p.119.
