Cranly makes his first appearance in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and is based on Joyce’s friend from university, John Frances Byrne. A devoutly religious young man, Cranly is both well-spoken and intelligent. Stephen Dedalus describes him as a pale, handsome face with large, dark eyes and an athletic body. Cranly talks with Stephen at length during the end of Portrait, especially about Stephen’s decision to abandon Catholicism (it is to Cranly that Stephen makes his infamous “silence, exile, and cunning” speech). During that exchange, he often amicably—with an “elder’s affection”—grabs hold of Stephen’s arm, contact Stephen seems to relish.

 
That selfsame contact marks Cranly’s first appearance in Ulysses. In Telemachus, Buck Mulligan links arms with Stephen and parades him around the top of the tower (at page 18), and Stephen thinks simply “Cranly’s arm.” It’s a moment of stark contrast between Cranly and Mulligan, for while Mulligan has replaced Cranly’s role in Stephen’s life, he has failed to do so with the same level of care and love.

 
Cranly also appears in Nestor and twice in Scylla and Charybdis, where Stephen also remembers his smile.