Bloomsday in Budapest

Bloomsday Budapest A Celebration of the Hungarian Heart & European Soul of James Joyce’s Ulysses & the Irish heritage of Ferenc Martyn

Bloomsday Budapest

A Celebration of the Hungarian Heart & European Soul of James Joyce’s Ulysses

& the Irish heritage of Ferenc Martyn

Set on a single day, 16 June 1904, in the city of Dublin, James Joyce’s Ulysses is the most celebrated of Irish novels. But it has a Hungarian heart – its protagonist, Leopold Bloom, is the son of a Jewish immigrant from Szombathely. And a European soul – inspired by Homer’s Odyssey and written in Trieste, Zurich, and Paris through the years of the First World War.

In marking Bloomsday in Budapest this year, and ahead of Ireland’s EU Presidency, the Embassy of Ireland invites you to join us for a garden party, celebrating Ulysses as a great European novel. Alongside short readings from Ulysses most celebrated episodes, our programme will include songs from Ulysses, savoured with Irish beer, Hungarian wine and good company.

The evening will also see us unveil a unique exhibition. On the centenary of Joyce’s birth in 1982, Ferenc Martyn, the acclaimed Hungarian abstract artist of Irish heritage, published 24 sketches inspired by the great modernist. From this Bloomsday, we will present these celebrated sketches alongside other iconic works of Martyn inspired by his Galway ancestry. The exhibition comprises paintings loaned by the municipalities of Tata and Pécs, and will be on display at the Ambassador’s residence this year, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Ireland and Hungary’s diplomatic ties.