The Kells Arts Club is proud to host the Bloomsday Joycean Breakfast on Sunday, June 16th at 10.30am at the Bookmarket Café. Join us for a Joycean breakfast with songs and poetry. Dress up in your finest Edwardian attire!
We will meet at Parnell Garden at 10.30am. Bookmarket at 11am. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/KellsArtsClub/.
Tickets are €13 for members, €17 for non-members.
Join us for a special Bloomsday Breakfast at the St. Andrews Resource Centre at Friday the 14th of June at 8am.
We will serve breakfast along with songs and readings.
Feel free to dress up in your best Bloomsday attire!
Join the Dunshaughlin Players on Bloomsday, Sunday June 16th for fun and mayham in Dunshaughlin, County Meath. The Players and friends will be acting out some of the Ulysses stories at locations on the Main Street, starting at Lidl carpark at 2pm and strolling up to the Pastoral Centre for tea/coffee and music and the Curlew Theatre’s play NORAMOLLYANNALIVIALUCIA.
Free to join. Donations are welcome!
Frascati Centre in Blackrock is proud to host the Newpark Community Orchestra for a Bloomsday tribute on Sunday, June 16th at 2-4pm in the main mall that will transforms into a mini-amphitheatre with amazing acoustics. An experience not to be missed!
Jack Allen, the talented caricaturist, will be entertaining guests drawing live caricature keepsakes to take home with compliments of Frascati Centre. Each caricature will take approx. 3-5 mins and will be done on a first come first served basis.
Bloomsday themed dress encouraged – prizes for best dressed!
Admission is free, limited seating available. Arrive early, and enjoy!
It’s time to don that boater hat and join us for an afternoon of readings and songs from Ulysses as part of the Bloomsday Festival’s flagship event Readings and Songs at Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, 3pm – 6pm on 16 June 2024.
A long-standing and treasured tradition, this afternoon of songs, readings and performances from Ulysses in the heart of the city is an essential part of the Bloomsday experience.
This year, we have actor and writer Tara Flynn at the helm in Temple Bar, to introduce a fabulously chaotic cast of noted Irish actors, musicians, pundits and everyone in between, who will read extracts from Ulysses. The readings will bring to life Joyce’s immortal words, from his description of Dublin’s “snotgreen sea”, to Molly Bloom’s famous “yes”.
This year’s esteemed readers are acclaimed actors Nora-Jane Noone, Gerry O’Brien, Eimear Keating, Geraldine McAlinden, Rachel Wren, Margaret McAuliffe, Steve Hartland, and Mary Murray and writers Conner Habib and Dermot Bolger. The event will also feature the celebrated singer-songwriter David Keenan and the comedic brilliance of Katherine Lynch and Goblins, Goblins, Goblins.
Musicians Bryan Mullen, Brian Gilligan and Camille O’Sullivan will grace the stage, bringing the music that inspired Joyce back to life. The celebrations will culminate with a reading by beloved Irish author Marian Keyes, as she breathes life into Molly Bloom’s legendary “Yes.”
This event is kindly supported by Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
*This is an outdoor event (the Meeting House Square Umbrellas are currently undergoing maintenance) so rain or shine please dress for the weather.
Ballsbridge Living Tidy Towns in partnership with Dublin City Council’s South East Area Community Team is proud to present Bloomsday Villages: Ballsbridge on Sunday, June 16th.
3pm: Ulysses Goes Wild in Herbert Park
Meeting Point: Outside Lolly and Cooks Café, Herbert Park, Dublin 4
Get closer to the wild side of Ballsbridge with Eanna Ní Lamhna, star of RTÉ’s The Mooney Show and Virgin Media’s The Six O’Clock Show, for a nature tour inspired by the “marriage of trees” from the Cyclops episode of Ulysses. Tour to last 60 minutes.
4pm: Seven Scenes from Ulysses
Meeting Point: The west/Donnybrook end of the Pond, Herbert Park, Dublin 4
Watch Ulysses come to life on the streets of Ballsbridge in the company of Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom and Stephen Dedalus!
The events are free and open to the public.
Celebrate Bloomsday at Buck Mulligan’s in Dún Laoighaire!
This year’s Bloomsday collides with our music showcase on Sundays, meaning there will be a line up of unique and exciting talents in traditional dress. We have just booked “The Gramophone Social” from 1pm-3pm, playing genuine original records from the early 1900s.
The day will feature some exciting signature cocktails including the ‘Nora’, our gin and elderflower sour to add to the festivities. We are also giving away pints for the customers in dress and will have prizes for best dressed.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Balloonatics are back once again on June 16th and will be spanning the day with onlocation recreations of Ulysses in Dublin City Centre. This year’s performers are: Mark Wale, Chris Bilton, Paul O’Hanrahan and musician, John Goudie. Join us on Bloomsday throughout the day: we are presenting three theatrical walks (no booking required) and our traditional evening performance in Wynn’s Hotel for which advance booking is advised.
Street Theatre Tours:
8 am Breakfast at the Blooms
Meet at the corner of Eccles and Dorset Street.
Bloom prepares separate breakfasts for himself and his wife and takes a stroll to the nearby butcher. This tour follows the ‘Calypso’ episode of Ulysses, chapter 4.
10.30 am Bloom collects a secret letter
Meet at Westland Row, opposite Pearse Station entrance, under the bridge.
This tour follows Bloom’s journey to church and chemist in the ‘Lotus-Eaters’ episode of Ulysses, chapter 5.
3 p.m. Bloom’s afternoon dodges
Meet on the wide side of Grattan Bridge over the Liffey.
This tour visits sites linked with the ‘Sirens’ and ‘Cyclops’ episodes of Ulysses, chapters 11 and 12, and explores Capel Street’s Joyce connections.
(Street theatre tours are free of charge; cash contribution at end appreciated)
Joyce Performance and Readings:
7.30 pm Humid Nightblue Fruit
Wynn’s Hotel, Lower Abbey Street
Barcaroles and Barreltones: Men in the Ormond – A dramatised reading adapted from the ‘Sirens’ episode from Ulysses by Paul O’Hanrahan, performing with Mark Wale, Chris Bilton and musician John Goudie. End your Bloomsday evening at this convivial Joyce gathering in this historic hotel. The performance will be followed by audience readings, all welcome to participate.
Tickets €13 plus booking fee
(€15 on door, if not sold out)
For more information contact:
Facebook: Paul O’Hanrahan, Balloonatics Theatre Company
www.balloonatics.tumblr.com
“the thoroughfare hitherto known as Cow Parlour off Cork Street be henceforth designated Boulevard Bloom.”
So says former Lord Mayor of Dublin Timothy Harrington in James Joyce’s Ulysses. And who are we to object?
On Thursday 13th of June, ‘The Tenters Celebrated’ heritage group would like to cordially invite you to join us in Cow Parlour off Cork Street in Dublin 8 for our Boulevard Bloom event. The morning will start with a brief introduction to the history of Cow Parlour, which has been in existence for at least 300 years. We will then be joined by Mr Harrington, who will propose the renaming of Cow Parlour to ‘Boulevard Bloom’. We are confident that there will be no objections to the proposal and for it to be carried unanimously. After the official business is completed, we will have a cuppa and cake, seated at linen covered tables more suited to the new Boulevard status of Cow Parlour. Music and singing will of course be the order of the morning.
Join us at the GPO Museum from 12pm on Saturday, June 15th for an afternoon of talks and music for the Bloomsday Festival. Located in ‘the Heart of the Hibernian Metropolis,’ as Joyce might say, the General Post Office has stood in the middle of Dublin’s busiest street since 1818. An iconic building in Dublin’s urban landscape, the GPO is also home to the GPO Museum, where we are dedicated to discussing Ireland’s 20th history with particular focus on Ireland’s fight for independence.
This Bloomsday weekend the GPO will hold a series of talks relating to James Joyce, rebellion and mythology. This includes a special talk at 12pm by renowned Joyce expert Luke Gibbons, author of James Joyce and the Irish Revolution (2023). Gibbons has taught as a Professor of Irish Studies in Maynooth University and the University of Notre Dame, and has published widely on Irish culture and criticism. These talks will focus on a variety of topics, exploring both Joyce’s relationship with Ireland’s revolutionary period and its cultural revival, and the use of Irish mythology during Ireland’s cultural revival and the fight for independence alongside Joyce’s use of other mythologies in his Dublin epic Ulysses.
We will also have music from harpist Rachel Duffy between the talks celebrating James Joyce’s great love of music. Rachel Duffy is from Bray in Co. Wicklow, has performed at festivals around the world and plays regularly with groups including Na Cauci, Triad Trio and the National Folk Orchestra. She enjoys teaching the harp in Wicklow and Dublin and working with harp ensembles at Bray CCE and TU Dublin.
Admission to the Bloomsday talks and Music is free and a ticket is not required, though they are available on the website. Priority seating will be given to café customers. If you have any queries, please get in touch with us at: +353 01 872 1916 or email us at: info@gpowitnesshistory.ie.
Please note that admission to the Bloomsday Talks and Music event does not include entry to the museum. Tickets are non-transferable to another person, tour or date.
Happenings Ireland in partnership with the James Joyce Centre is proud to present Breathe and Bloom, a truly unique Bloomsday celebration of health, wellness, and yoga (yes, really!) on Sunday, June 16th at 11am-1:30pm in Brighton Square.
James Joyce was born in 1882 at 41 Brighton Square. What better way to celebrate Bloomsday than by gathering where it all began! Breathe and Bloom is a unique blend of traditional Bloomsday celebrations and wellness exercises.
Ulysses is not often thought about in terms of health and fitness but the novel provides a glimpse into the burgeoning wellness movement that would develop extensively in the 20th century. Leopold Bloom is conscious of his body and the need to maintain it through exercise and diet, even if he is not so vigilant in doing so! “Got up wrong side of the bed,” he thinks to himself. “Must begin again those Sandow’s exercises.” His wife, Molly, also has this on her mind: “I must do a few breathing exercises[.] I wonder is that antifat any good might overdo it.” The event will show this often-overlooked facet of Joyce’s work by combining a class by Yoga in the Park with a talk about health and fitness in Joyce’s work as well as old-fashioned readings and songs!
The event will start with Yoga in the Park’s regularly-scheduled class with Jo Collins from 11am to 12pm. It will then be followed by a half-hour talk about fitness, wellness and Joyce by Dr. Conor Heffernan, Lecturer in Sport Sociology at Ulster University. This talk will feature demonstrations of gentle stretching, dumbbell raising and deep breathing by Jo Collins. Audience participation is encouraged but not mandatory. After the talk, the park will host music and readings of Ulysses. The audience is welcome to bring food and drink to make a nice picnic!
Schedule:
11-12: Happenings Yoga’s Yoga in the Park class with Jo Collins.
12-12:30: Talk and yoga demonstration by Dr. Conor Heffernan and Jo Collins about fitness, mindfullness, and yoga in Ulysses.
12:30-1:30: Music and readings.
The Yoga in the Park class is €10. Dr. Heffernan’s talk and the music and readings are free to the public. More information about the event can be found here.
Many thanks to the residents of Brighton Square for hosting the event.
Come enjoy an afternoon of yoga, mindfulness and fun in what is a Bloomsday Festival first!
Join us for our musical odyssey ‘Ancora!’ in the Church of the Three Patrons in Rathgar (where Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus of Ulysses were baptised) on Thursday, the 13th of June at 7:30pm.
We will treat you to a rendition of some of Joyce’s favourite songs and arias. Alongside these you will enjoy well-loved Italian choruses performed by Il Coro Italiano di Dublino.
Mezzo-Soprano: Ami Hewitt
Tenor: James McCreanor
Accompanist: Fintan Farrelly
Musical Director: Frank C. O’Donnell
If you feel the pangs of hunger after our concert, step into the church hall for a little wine, a bite to eat, and a sociable chat before we bid you “adieu, adieu, adieu”!
Tickets are €20 and are sold at the door.
Bella Musica presents a special Bloomsday recital with songs mentioned by Joyce as well as some light excerpts from Ulysses. The programme will include popular hits of the time such as “The Low Back’d Car,” “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” “The Green Isle of Erin,” “She Is Far From The Land,” “I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls,” and more. A particularly special treat will be a charming song Joyce wrote the lyrics to called “Out by Donnycarney.”
The concert features Aimee Banks (soprano), John Rownan (tenor), and Didzis Kalniņš (piano). For any questions about the recital, please email hello@bellamusica.ie or call at 085 130 3259.
About the artists:
Aimee Banks is a soprano from Galway with a string of vocal awards to her name such as the winner of the Junior Class of the Charles Wood International Song competition 2023, The Irene Sandford Award and Bursary 2022, The Birr Lions Club Bursary at Birr Festival of Music 2022, The Vladimir Piontkovsky Memorial Scholarship At Saluzzo Opera Academy 2022. She was a multi-award winner at Newpark Festival of Music 2023 & Dublin Feis Ceoil 2023, including the Plunkett Greene Cup for interpretation and the German Government Cup for Bach Aria amongst others. Aimee has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall New York USA, The National Concert Hall, Christchurch Cathedral and The National Gallery of Ireland. She has also had the honour of performing at the Irish Government’s launch of the 1916 Commemorations in Dublin’s Convention Centre, National Famine Commemoration in 2020 and has also performed at Áras an Uachtaráin for the President of Ireland Micheal D. Higgins.
John Rownan is a tenor from Dublin but trained in classical singing in Bucharest, Romania, where he performed in two recitals for the Irish Embassy including a noteworthy Bloomsday Recital he prepared in 2017. John took further training in Greece and worked with the Hellenic Opera Corporation and Greek Opera Festival, where he performed in roles such as Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme, and Don Basilio in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, among others. John has since performed in roles and given recitals across Europe, including for several opera productions by Opera Classica Europa in Germany and The Netherlands. In 2023, John founded Bella Musica Recitals to present a variety of popular music events to excite and delight.
Didzis Kalniņš is an award-winning pianist originally from Latvia but who moved to Dublin in 2016 where he has since completed a Doctorate in Music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He now works as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He regularly performs at renowned venues such as the National Concert Hall, Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, The National Gallery, and The Mansion House amongst others. Didzis has also given recitals for audiences internationally in countries such as Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Latvia, Estonia and Brazil.
Tickets are €24 general, €18 concession. Doors open at 5pm for a 5:15pm start.
Come celebrate Bloomsday in MoLI – Museum of Literature Ireland on St. Stephen’s Green. MoLI is situated in the Newman House, where James Joyce (and Stephen Dedalus) went to university when it was the campus of University College.
5PM: Dedalus Lecture with Fintan O’Tolle
Journalist and author Fintan O’Toole delivers the museum’s annual lecture inspired by Ulysses.
Fintan O’Toole is a writer and author. His books include We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958, Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain, and Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger. A member of the Royal Irish Academy, he is a winner of the European Press Prize and the Orwell Prize. He is also professor of Irish letters at Princeton University.
Tickets are €18.
7-10PM: MoLI Bloomsday Garden Party
Round off your Bloomsday celebrations at the MoLI Bloomsday Garden Party – held across the museum’s beautiful exhibitions and gardens. Celebrate 102 years of Joyce’s Ulysses with a glass in hand, and live music from Ireland’s most exciting musicians and rappers, whose adventure with language echoes Joyce’s own fearlessness with words. A guaranteed highlight of the summer!
Includes a welcome drink on arrival. Presented in partnership with the Dublin Liberties Distillery. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.
Offica has redefined what it means to be an Irish rapper, breaking records with a run of classic singles and game-changing freestyles. He has carved a niche for himself by seamlessly incorporating Irish and Yoruba slang into his lyrics, providing a unique window into his culture and identity. Watch video
Celine is a talented musician known for her unique style and storytelling in true rap. She has gained a strong following for her emotional lyrics and captivating performances. Watch video
Emmy Shigeta is a Japanese DJ whose love for music developed while working in a record store in Tokyo. Now based in Dublin, she loves to play ambient (環境音楽), city pop, and the latest underground J-pop in various venues and on her monthly Dublin Digital Radio show.
Tickets are €24.
The James Joyce Centre is proud to present a lunchtime performance by Poems Ago. Poems Ago, the Irish-Dutch musical duo Juliana Hahn and Remco Jacobs, compose and perform music to Irish poetry and play original songs. In this concert, they will perform guitar and violin music set to James Joyce’s Chamber Music (1906) as well as poetry by W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and contemporary Irish poets. The concert conincides with Yeats’ birthday.
More information about Poems Ago can be found on their website https://www.poemsago.com/.
Tickets are €12.
“He entered Davy Byrnes. Moral pub. He doesn’t chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in a leap year once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.” Ulysses
Davy Byrnes pub opened its doors in 1889. Thirty-one years later it was thrust in to international fame with the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses when Leopold Bloom visits for a glass of burgundy and a gorgonzola cheese sandwich in the ‘Lestrygonians’ episode. Bloom stands and chats with the owner, Davy Byrne, about life and his appetite before continuing on his odyssey. Ever since Bloomsday has been celebrated, Davy Byrnes has been at its heart.
This year, the iconic pub will be hosting an afternoon of festivities to mark the day with music, performances, and readings. Bring Ulysses to life (and order a gorgonzola or two) in this historic city centre environment!
The event is free. No booking required.
Further information: https://davybyrnes.com/
The Ringsend & District Historical Society in partnership with Dublin City Council’s South East Area Community Team is proud to present Bloomsday Villages: Ringsend/Irishtown on June 15th and 16th. Ringsend is where James Joyce and Nora Barnacle had their first date on June 16th, 1904 — the date on which Ulysses is set. What better way to celebrate Bloomsday than to spend it where it all began!
Saturday, June 15th
11 am: Ringsend Library
A lecture by the DCC Historian in Residence Cormac Moore, ‘The Life of Constance Markievicz’
12pm: Ringsend Library
A walking Tour with Eddie Bohan, ‘In The Footsteps of Joyce 1904.’ Departs & ends at the Ringsend Library.
1.30pm: Bus Tour
A 45-minute bus tour courtesy of the Big Bus Open Top. The tour takes place in Sandymount Strand, the Green and Irishtown.
3pm: Ringsend Library
An outdoor ballad/folksong session.
Sunday, June 16th
10.30am: Thorncastle Street
A horse and carriage parade to Ringsend Park, departing from Thorncastle Street. Tour route: Irishtown Road, Pembroke Street, Strasburg Terrace with a Ulysess performance, Ringsend Park, return via Caroline Row, Fitzwilliam Street to the RICC Centre. The event will feature the unveiling of a plaque and seat dedicated to James Joyce and Nora Barnacle commemorating their first date with thanks to Dublin City Council.
12.30pm: RICC Centre
The Bloomsday Brunch featuring live music, food and period dress.
4 pm: CYMS Hall, Ringsend
The Writers Adventure, ‘Remembering Ringsend.’ A short story and poetry prize presentation. Books tokens (€200, €100 & €75) awarded courtesy of Savvi, Irishtown.
The events are free and open to the public.
The James Joyce Centre is delighted to invite you to a unique musical interpretation of James Joyce’s Dubliners. Irish folk ensemble Hibsen will pay homage to Joyce with performances of their critically acclaimed album “The Stern Task of Living.” The album is a collection of 15 songs, one for each short story in Dubliners. Through their original music and lyrics, Hibsen brings the stories to life.
For lovers of Joyce, these concerts provide a unique perspective on Dubliners. For those not familiar with the stories, the performances provide an ideal opportunity to get to know them in an intimate surrounding.
“The arrangements . . . and lyrics come from the pen of people who have spent a lot of time in Joyce’s world.” John Meagher, Irish Independent
“One might almost sense the spirit of Joyce himself strolling through these tracks. Better still, you don’t have to know the stories to savour this as a musical experience in its own right.” Jackie Hayden, Hot Press Magazine
Hibsen are a contemporary folk music ensemble formed by Irish artists Jim Murphy and Gráinne Hunt. They released their debut album “The Stern Task of Living” on 26 May 2023. The album was inspired by the book of short stories Dubliners by James Joyce and it comprises 15 songs, one for each short story. It was launched at Bloomsday Festival 2023 and it has received critical acclaim. Some of the songs from the album received extensive national and regional radio play with one of the songs (Eveline) reaching number 2 on the RTE Radio 1 Airplay Chart. “The Stern Task of Living” was also selected as a featured album on RTE Lyric FM and on BBC Radio Ulster.
Tickets are €20.
in association with the
James Joyce Centre
brings you
‘Strings in the earth and air…’
The Musical World of James Joyce
with
Nicole Rourke (actor-writer)
&
Benjamin Dwyer (guitarist-composer)
Bloomsday 16 June 2024, 8.00pm
Join us in a celebration of Joyce’s fascination with music. With excerpts from the early poetry collection, Chamber Music, through the melancholic stories of Dubliners, to the ornate worlds of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, Rourke & Dwyer offer a captivating programme of Joyce’s musical obsessions.
The show includes excerpts of ‘raw sensuality’ from Nuala O’Connor’s celebrated book Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce; and it features the premiere of a new text by Nicole Rourke exploring the sensual worlds of Nora, Molly and Joyce.
Following the show, Director of the James Joyce Centre, Darina Gallagher, will host a Q&A with Nicole and Benjamin on the role of music in Joyce’s life and writing, and their creation of the programme. Wine will be served.
Tickets are €20.
“I took the sounds of my city Dublin, its bar talk, its street noise and turned it into language.” James Joyce
Stories and Songs Of Dublin’s Writers: Wilde, Behan, O Casey, Joyce by Gary Brown is a one hour show of laughs, songs, culture and craic. Dublin is famous for its writers and its contribution to global literature. The show presents the history of some of its writers, quotes and songs from them. It deals with their lives in Dublin and abroad. Hear about the lives and work of Brendan Behan, James Joyce, Sean O’Casey, Oscar Wilde and many others. The show stars comedian and actor Gary Cooke.
Showtimes are June 12th, 13th, and 14th at 3-4pm.* Tickets are €20.
*The show runs June, July and August.
‘All the Ghosts of Ulysses’ is the original music at the heart of this play. Joyce’s characters are set free at the Tower to share their stories in the guise of the Idrone Players’ 18 actors, singers, dancers, and live musicians.
Leopold Bloom’s marriage to Molly is tragically threatened but Ulysses aWake’s opening song, ‘Send out your light and your truth’ (Cuir thuat amach do sholas is do fhírinne), signals that Bloom will be the author of his story. This is his day.
Tickets are free but booking is essential. There will be both seating and standing places available.
Join us at the James Joyce Tower for a wonderful evening of enchanting music. The Druidy Druids perform an array of songs and music referred to in Joyce’s works, including his own “Bid Adieu,” the only piece in Chamber Music for which he wrote both the words and the melody. Visit their website at https://druidy-druids.mozello.com/.
Tickets are €5. The Druidy Druids will repeat their performance free of charge on June 16th at 12:30pm.
Singer Noel O’Grady performs his “Ode to James Joyce: Portrait of a Tenor” in the Round Room of the Joyce Tower at 2pm. Noel will also celebrate John McCormack’s birthday. Noel is five time winner of Oireachtas na Gaeilge for traditional singing and has been been described as the “voice of James Joyce.”
Tickets are €5.
Reclining on a bed in the round room, Cáitriona Ní Threasaigh transports us to number seven Eccles Street as Molly Bloom reviews her day and, indeed, her life in this soliloquy from the final episode of Ulysses.
Tickets are €5.
Caitríona Ní Threasaigh is an actor who has also trained in clown. She performed Molly Bloom’s soliloquy at Áras an Uachtarán for the Irish president, Michael D. Higgins and his guests on Bloomsday (2013) and has performed it in the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove for Bloomsday ever since. Other roles include Mamó in Saol Ella, TG4 (2023), Mrs. Corcoran in The Dry, RTE (2023) Chantelle, in the film Deeper Thing (Nigeria 2018), Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2015 Berlin, Germany) and Móna, Ros na Rún, Tg4 (2014).
Belvedere College in association with the James Joyce Centre is delighted to host the Bloomsday Breakfast on Sunday, June 16th at 8:30am and 10:30am.
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.
There are two sittings at 8:30am and 10:30am.
Tickets are €50. To make a booking, please contact Rebecca Mills at rmills@belvederecollege.ie or +353 1 858 6644.
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 from 9:30am to 4:30pm. 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, professor of dancing &c,” the real-life dance instructor who used the room as his dance studio and is mentioned in Ulysses! There will be readings, talks, music, children’s events, 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 unparalleled literary occasion. For more information, visit our website at www.jamesjoyce.ie.
We hope to see you there!
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.
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.
“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 will be followed by a wine reception provided generously by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Dublin.
The concert is presented by Association Smaregliana in cooperation with the University of Pula and the James Joyce Centre and sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Dublin.
Tickets are €15.
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.
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.