Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Cyclops/310

Annotations

Decree nisi     (Latin) A legal term from the Latin nisi (unless), denoting a court order that will become absolute at a specified date unless cause can be shown why it should not. In British law the term is most commonly applied to the initial stage of divorce proceedings, the divorce becoming absolute six months later. J. J. O'Molloy, a solicitor, is jocosely suggesting that the adultery of Derbforgaill and her paramour Diarmait Mac Murchada might have been used by her husband Tigernán Us Ruairc as grounds for a divorce.