Skip to main content

Category: Music

Bloomsday Breakfast at Belvedere College

Written by Conor on . No Comments on Bloomsday Breakfast at Belvedere College

Belvedere College in association with the James Joyce Centre is delighted to host the Bloomsday Breakfast on Sunday, June 16th at 8am.

Leopold Bloom is introduced in Ulysses eating his breakfast: “Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. . .” Come enjoy this unique gastroliterary tradition in Belvedere College, in the very rooms where Joyce studied from 1893 to 1898. Joyce wrote about his student days at Belvedere College throughout his life, particularly in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

You will dine in “the heart of the Hibernian metropolis,” around the corner from where Leopold and Molly Bloom had their home at 7 Eccles Street and close to where Joyce lived until he emigrated from Ireland with Nora Barnacle in 1904.

The ticket includes:
-A special Bloomsday breakfast (full-Irish with Bloom’s beloved kidneys).
-Dramatic readings and performances from Ulysses.
-Songs from Ulysses and Joyce’s other works.

Tickets are €50. To make a booking, please contact Rebecca Mills at rmills@belvederecollege.ie or +353 1 858 6644.

Bloomsday at the James Joyce Centre

Written by Conor on . No Comments on Bloomsday at the James Joyce Centre

The James Joyce Centre welcomes you to its doors to celebrate the greatest time of the year, Bloomsday!

The James Joyce Centre is proud to organise the Bloomsday Festival on behalf of the city of Dublin. As a token of our appreciation to Dublin and all the participants of Bloomsday, we will be open free of charge on Sunday, June 16th. Come see Leopold Bloom’s door from No. 7 Eccles Street, where it all began. Browse our exhibitions, parlour rooms, and interactive guides to Joyce’s life and work. Marvel at the beautifully preserved 18th century townhouse, a stunning example of high Georgian architecture. See the Maginni Room, named after “Mr Denis J Maginni, prof. of dancing & co.,” the real-life dance instructor who used the room as his dance studio and is mentioned in Ulysses! There will be readings, talks, music, and fun throughout the day!

Feel free to dress up in your finest bowler hats and Edwardian garb as you join visitors from around the world for an unparalled literary occassion. For more information, visit our website at www.jamesjoyce.ie.

We hope to see you there!

Rathgar Bloomsday Festival

Written by Conor on . No Comments on Rathgar Bloomsday Festival

Dress up and come celebrate all things Joyce at Rathgar Village Square, sponsored by Dublin City Council and Rathgar Business Association. They will be readings of Ulysses, jazz from Razzmajazz, food stalls, and face painting and Alpacas for the kids. The event is free of charge and will be outdoors, weather permitting.

A Musical Celebration of Joyce’s Ulysses

Written by Conor on . No Comments on A Musical Celebration of Joyce’s Ulysses

The works of James Joyce, who was an accomplished musician himself, are musical landscapes, laden with references to songs and operatic works of the day. The National Concert Hall is proud to present its Bloomsday concert on Friday, June 14th at 1pm in the John Field Room.

Accompanied by the outstanding pianist, David Wray, Dublin-Born soprano Sandra Oman, in the role of Molly Bloom, will perform such vocal delights as “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” “The Last Rose of Summer,” “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” “The Holy City,” “Sweet Rosie O’Grady,” “Oft in the Stilly Night,” “Silent, O Moyle,” “Habanera (Carmen),” and “The Lass of Aughrim.” Acclaimed actress and television icon Mary McEvoy (Biddy, Glenroe) plays the role of Nora Barnacle, Joyce’s wife, reading extracts from Ulysses and giving the audience a flavour of Dublin in 1904. Molly and Nora, the great loves of Joyce’s life (fictitious and real), converse and reminisce. A concert for lovers of Bloomsday, Joyce or simply beautiful songs of yesteryear!

The concert is presented by Sheldon Nulty Music.

Tickets are €22 general, €20 concession.

Joseph Chester’s Fragments of Lucia

Written by Conor on . No Comments on Joseph Chester’s Fragments of Lucia

“People talk of my influence on my daughter, but what about her influence on me?”
– James Joyce, 1934
Fragments of Lucia is a solo guitar performance by Joseph Chester of his highly-acclaimed album LUCIA, a suite of 10 pieces inspired by fragments of the life of Lucia Joyce, James Joyce’s daughter.
Joseph Chester is a multi award-nominated songwriter, composer and musician whose albums have featured in the books 101 Irish Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Tony Clayton-Lea, Buried Treasure by Dan Hegarty and in The Sunday Times list of the best Irish albums of all time.
Lucia Joyce spent 47 years in institutions as a result of mental illness, including long periods in isolation. She died in the notoriously cruel St. Andrew’s asylum, Northampton at the age of 75. And yet, in her youth she had shown enormous potential as a dancer and illustrator. Over the course of two years, Chester took ten key moments from the life of Lucia Joyce. Ten facts of her existence and composed a piece of music for each, to pay tribute to her, to bear witness to her and in some fantastical, imaginary way, let her speak.
The Paris Times wrote that “James Joyce may yet be known as his daughter’s father.” Some say she was a muse for Finnegans Wake. Her father described her as, “A fantastic being with a mind as clear and unsparing as the lightning.” However, after undergoing tests, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was committed in 1936. She would never know freedom again.
Two performances at 4pm and 8pm. Performance time is approximately 70 minutes.
Tickets are €17 general, €15 concession.

James Joyce & Antonio Smareglia, His Composer Friend

Written by Conor on . No Comments on James Joyce & Antonio Smareglia, His Composer Friend

“Smareglia (who lives beside me) is held by many to be the most original of the living Italian musicians.” – James Joyce, 1911

Join us at the James Joyce Centre for a special Bloomsday Festival concert event that illustrates the connection between James Joyce, Antonio Smareglia, Trieste, and Pula. The concert features performances of music excerpts from operas by Smareglia, the Italian-Croatian composer who was a friend and neighbour of Joyce while they both lived in Trieste.

Maltese pianist Charlene Farrugia-Božac and Croatian soprano Sofija Cingula will bring to life some of the music from operas that Joyce would have heard and admired at the time, from Smareglia’s student work Caccia lontana and Nozze Istriane (which Joyce heard in Trieste in 1908) to fragments from Oceana, Smareglia’s most novel work of music theatre known as teatro di poesia.

The event will include presentations by Croatian scholar Dr. Vito Paoletić (University of Pula) about Joyce’s time in Pula, as well as the city’s links to and celebrations of Bloomsday. Introduction about the musician Antonio Smareglia and his connection to James Joyce will be given by Dr. Juliana Licinic van Walstijn (Queen’s University Belfast), President of the Association Smaregliana.

The concert is presented by Association Smaregliana in collaboration with the University of Pula and the James Joyce Centre.

A Joycean Evening at Dalkey Castle

Written by Conor on . No Comments on A Joycean Evening at Dalkey Castle

Celebrate the more light hearted elements of Joyce’s works by watching a team of professional actors perform enlightening and entertaining extracts from Ulysses, Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man at Dalkey Castle.

Sing along with professional singers such as Simon Morgan and Donna Malone, accompanied by Josh Johnston, in songs that James Joyce sang or which feature in his works.

Runs for approximately 2.5 hours. Refreshments will be served. Tickets are €22.95.

The event is supported by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Bloomsday at Sweny’s Pharmacy

Written by Conor on . No Comments on Bloomsday at Sweny’s Pharmacy

Sweny’s Pharmacy is famously featured in the fifth episode of Ulysses, known as “Lotus Eaters.” This delightful little shop has survived since 1847 and today still has all its original fixtures and fittings. Now run by volunteers, Sweny’s opens its doors to welcome people on their Bloomsday adventure. Wait by the counter like Leopold Bloom, absorbing the authentic atmosphere. Watch the chemist at work with his herbs and ointments among “all his alabaster lilypots.” Pick up a bar of lemon soap (“sweet lemony wax”) that you can carry with you all day, just like Bloom. Get involved in a reading of Ulysses, enjoy a cup of tea and share epic tales about your own life. You might even get a chance to join in an Edwardian singsong.

From Monday 10 to Saturday 16 June, a performance and reading will take place in Sweny’s at 12.30pm from “Lotus Eaters.”

On Bloomsday itself, there will be merriment in this hidden Joycean gem throughout the day and into the evening, starting with a Bloomsday Breakfast from 10am at Kennedy’s Pub across the street at which there will be readings and performances.

Further information can be found on www.sweny.ie. The events are free.