Skip to main content

Category: Reading

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!

Here Comes Everybody’s Karma: A Retelling of Finnegans Wake

Written by Conor on . No Comments on Here Comes Everybody’s Karma: A Retelling of Finnegans Wake

The Hole in the Wall pub proudly hosts the book launch of Here Comes Everybody’s Karma by Shaharee Vyaas. The subject of this book launch is the fruit of an artistic endeavor that aimed to merge the most beautiful book in English literature, The Kelmscott Chaucer, with its most enigmatic one, Finnegans Wake. In this retelling the foreign language idiosyncrasies have been replaced by their English equivalent and Joyce’s sibylline prose has been streamlined into a more fluid syntaxis. the title of this retelling and the naming of the chapters want to inspire the readers to rethink the whole tale from the perspective of the Asiatic philosophical concepts of Karma and Dharma, which are interacting cyclical principles.

Attendance is free. Copies of the book will be sold at a reduced price. The event includes a welcome drink and snack buffet.

Joyce and the Jesuits: Bloomsday at St. Francis Xavier Church

Written by Conor on . No Comments on Joyce and the Jesuits: Bloomsday at St. Francis Xavier Church

Ulysses was finally published in book form in 1922 when, according to Fr. George O’Neill SJ, one of his teachers at Clongowes Wood College,  Joyce was enjoying “regrettable celebrity.” The main response to Ulysses in Ireland was to attack it on anti-Catholic grounds. Joyce did have major issues with the Irish Catholic Church of the time but his writings were steeped in Church history, philosophy and theology, which he knew far better than the majority of Irish Catholic clerics who denounced him. Gradually, acceptance of the importance of Joyce to Irish literature became widespread, by people of all faiths and none.

Even though he does poke gentle fun at certain individuals in the Society of Jesus, his affection for the Jesuits who educated him is palpable in his writings, and so it’s fitting to bring him back home to the Jesuit Church of St. Francis Xavier on Gardiner Street, a location that features in much of his work. For the 120th anniversary of the first Bloomsday, actor, writer and broadcaster Gerry McArdle puts together a programme of readings from Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses which highlights the Joyce-Jesuit connections. He is joined by well known figure in Irish musical circles, Raphael Kelly, and singer Suzanne Mangan. The event is hosted and narrated by popular RTÉ newscaster Eileen Dunne, who, like the other artists involved, freely donates her time and talents. 

Admission is free but donations are welcome.

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.