Cunningham, Martin. Cunningham rides in a carriage with Leopold Bloom, Jack Power, and Simon Dedalus as part of Patrick Dignam’s funeral procession. Cunningham represents Dubliners at their best when he shows sensitivity about Bloom’s father’s suicide, yet just a few pages earlier he has “thwarted [Bloom’s] speech rudely.” He is the prime mover behind an effort to gather funds for Dignam’s family to “keep them going till the insurance is cleared up.” (Bloom contributes without a second thought.)
Cunningham also appears in Dubliners in the short story “Grace,” where he encourages Protestant Thomas Kernan to go on a Catholic retreat as part of a plan to reform his alcoholism. Cunningham is mentioned in Lotus Eaters, Aeolus, Eumaeus, Ithaca, and Penelope; he appears in Hades, Wandering Rocks, Cyclops, and Circe.