Larrons o'toolers

• Saint Laurence O'Toole: Archbishop of Dublin (1161-1180), and the city's patron saint; he gave rise to Ireland's canonical independence from Canterbury
  • St Laurence O'Toole
  • Third Census of Finnegans Wake

• St Lawrence: family name of the Earls of Howth (after the Spanish Saint Lawrence)
  • Third Census of Finnegans Wake

• larron: (French) a thief → Jacob, the thief of Esau’s birthright

• lashings of toilers: lots of workers

• tooler: one who works with a tool

Commentary

FW 005.03-04: with larrons o'toolers clittering up and tombles a'buckets clottering down.

As Lawrence O'Toole was rising to power in Ireland, Thomas a Becket was falling from King Henry's grace in England