(defun go-time ... )

Crisis averted. After reading through error logs and spying on processes, etc., I discovered that the fatal loop / hang in the opening phase of the eclipse startup was due to a missing SBCL_HOME var. After defining that in my .bashrc (I like it there) things went fine. Now able to get to into Eclipse, and also view the REPL view, so it looks like I am good-to-go.