Bloomsday

Today is Bloomsday!

Ulysses Named after Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses, Bloomsday is an annual commemoration that celebrates the life of Irish writer James Joyce, and relives the events that took place in this most famous novel on the same day in Dublin 1904.

James Joyce

“Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liver slices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencod’s roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.”

Dating from 1954, it is celebrated by Joyceans all over the world and usually involves a range of activities including Ulysses readings and dramatisations, pub crawls and general fun and games. Enthusiasts often dress in Edwardian costume and retrace Bloom’s route around Dublin via landmarks such as Davy Byrne’s pub.

“I was blue mouldy for the want of that pint. Declare to God I could hear it hit the pit of my stomach with a click.”

Ulysses is considered by many the most important novel to be published during the 20th century, and the original handwritten manuscript is currently held by the Philadelphia Rosenbach Museum & Library in the United States.

“Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.”

James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941).