Join Lua McIlraith and The Lilliput Players on Bloomsday, Monday June 16th at 5pm for an afternoon of readings, poems, dramatisations of the works of the legendary author and songs associated with him. Immerse yourself in the world of James Joyce as we bring his words to life at a unique location.
Whether you’re a die-hard fan or just curious to learn more, this event promises to be a memorable experience!. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest literary figures of all time. If you were ever too scared of Joyce, you need no longer be. See you there!
The event is free but booking is essential. There will be both seating and standing places available.
Join us at The James Joyce Centre for a special Bloomsday performance of Declan Gorman‘s acclaimed one-act play The Dubliners Dilemma on Monday, June 16th at 4pm.
The Dubliners Dilemma premiered in Ireland in 2012 and has toured to Norway, USA, India, Russia, and all over Ireland. Described as a “truly mesmerizing performance” (Metro Herald), it finds London publisher Grant Richards re-reading the manuscript of Dubliners in 1914, eight full years after he initially rejected it on the grounds it might breach strict obscenity laws. Joyce’s Dublin comes to wild life around him, a city of innocence and perversion: of sexual predators, gigolos, gamblers and drinkers mingling among street children, housemaids and exquisite concert singers. Entranced again by the literary gifts of the truculent Irish author who refused to change a single word, Richards must decide whether to take the risk second time around, and be the one finally to bring the genius of Joyce to the world.
Written and performed by Declan Gorman. Directed by Gerard Lee.
“Gorman holds the audience enraptured throughout with a truly mesmerising performance. This original adaptation is by no means exclusively for die-hard Joyce fans, making a brilliant introduction for newcomers!” Metro Herald, Dublin
“Gorman is a compelling performer, at his best when undertaking childhood roles and in his element with Joyce’s obsequious characters … an animated and intelligent performance.” Irish Theatre Magazine
The James Joyce Centre is proud to present as part of the Bloomsday Festival 2025 Counterparts & A Little Cloud from James Joyce’s Dubliners on Friday, May 30th at 7.30pm. These two short stories from Joyce’s debut work are vivid ‘slices of life’ in early 20th century Dublin, revealing a society in paralysis, desperately awaiting change.
Stunningly accompanied by live music, we follow a pair of Dublin characters portrayed in immaculately detailed scenes: In “Counterparts,” a frustrated law clerk is determined to have a big night’s drinking, while in “A Little Cloud,” a sensitive soul is thrown by a meeting with an old university friend back from London. At once funny and tragic, the stories are populated with an array of colourful characters who, despite the bowler hats and Edwardian collars, remain entirely contemporary.
‘lighting up the genius of Joyce’s Dubliners’ Sunday Independent
‘beautifully dramatised and served up as a lunchtime treat… a perfect hour’s entertainment’ Irish Independent
‘two superbly articulated performances’ The Arts Review
‘a superb dramatised introduction to one of the greatest short-story collections in world literature’ Frank McNally, The Irish Times
Volta Theatre Company is a new company with the remit to bring classical theatre to a wide audience. Its’ founders are Liam Hourican and Jim Roche, who have collaborated for many years in theatre and TV. Liam has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, the Old Vic and Second Age Theatre company and has written and performed sketch shows and comedy drama for Channel 4, RTE and the BBC. Jim has starred in Normal People (directed by Lenny Abramson) (BBC), Harry Wild (Acorn TV), Blood 2 (Virgin Media), Vikings (History Channel), Damo and Ivor, Fair City, Killinaskully, The Mario Rosenstock Show, Dead Still (RTE), The Tudors (Showtime) and iCandy (Channel 4). Musicians Feilimidh Nunan and Conor Sheil regularly work with all the principal orchestras in Ireland (National Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Wexford Festival Orchestra, Irish National Opera Orchestra). Their professional interests have led them to collaborate with many other groups in film and theatre but also in different musical genres ranging from jazz to traditional music.
“Grace” from Joyce’s Dubliners is a tale of booze, bombast and religious confusion that brilliantly satirises the role of the Catholic Church in early twentieth century Irish life. When struggling salesman, Tom Kernan (who also appears in Ulysses), is found drunk and injured in a pub toilet and brought home in disgrace to his long suffering wife, his friends hatch a plot to save him from his errant ways.
This acclaimed production features the actor and comedian, Terry O’Neill, who brings to life Joyce’s rare collection of characters and takes you on a hilarious journey from purgatory to paradise.
Dubliners, first published in 1914, is one of the great short story collections in the English language. By exploring the lives of his fellow Dublin citizens with unflinching realism, Joyce revealed truths both blasphemous and transcendent.
The James Joyce Centre opens its doors to celebrate the greatest day 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 to the public for free on Monday, 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.
Admission is free and open to the public. No booking is necessary.
Kick off The Bloomsday Festival weekend celebrations at The James Joyce Centre on Friday, June 13th at 7pm with a Joyce-themed cabaret of readings, performance, music and natter, hosted by author David Collard.
Collard will be joined by novelist Rónán Hession (aka Mumblin’ Deaf Ro and performing his own songs with his son Jacob), author and poet Nuala O’Connor (reading from her latest poetry collection Menagerie) and American actress and voice artist Stephanie Ellyne. Surprises and beneficial shocks are guaranteed at this informal one-off gathering, with a nod to 1920s Dada cabaret. All are welcome – not just Joyceans!
David Collard writes for print and online publications including the Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, 3:AM Magazine, gorse, Exacting Clam, White Review and others. He is the author of Multiple Joyce: One Hundred Short Essays about James Joyce’s Cultural Legacy (2020) and A Crumpled Swan (2025). He lives in London, where he organises cultish online literary gatherings.
Stephanie Ellyne is an American actress based in London. Stage credits include Rest Upon the Wind (Riverside Studios, Theatre Royal Haymarket, and tours to the UAE) and playing Virginia Woolf in Mad Women in Attics (New Wimbledon Theatre). Her voice work includes the British/American audio serial Dark Shadows, nominated for the BBC Audio Drama Awards, and narrating the 45-hour audiobook of Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport for which she was commended in the New York Times. (Ellmann’s novel was described in The Irish Times by Declan O’Driscoll as ‘one of the outstanding books of the century, so far’ and as such an equivalent to Ulysses.) She has recorded short stories for the annual Costa Awards and is a frequent narrator for RNIB Talking Books.
Rónán Hession is a writer, musician and civil servant from Dublin. His debut novel Leonard and Hungry Paul was nominated for the Irish Book Awards, British Book Awards, the BAMB awards, and long-listed for the Republic of Consciousness prize. His third album Dictionary Crimes was nominated for the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year. His second novel Panenka was published by Bluemoose in 2021 and his third, Ghost Mountain, in 2024. He will be performing tonight as his musical alter ego “Mumblin’ Deaf Ro,” accompanied by his son Jacob.
Nuala O’Connor lives in Co. Galway. Her poetry and fiction have been widely published, anthologised, and won many literary awards. Her sixth novel Seaborne, about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny, was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year at the 2024 A Post Irish Book Awards. Her novel Nora (New Island), about Nora Barnacle and James Joyce, was a Top 10 historical novel in the New York Times. She won Irish Short Story of the Year at the 2022 A Post Irish Book Awards. Her fifth poetry collection, Menagerie, was recently published by Arlen House.
6.30pm: Seven Scenes from Ulysses
Meeting Point: Portobello Harbour, Dublin 8
Portobello is immortalised in Ulysses with Leopold Bloom’s house and birthplace set on Upper Clanbrassil Street. Follow this 60 minute theatrical trail past many of the streets and locations mentioned in the book.
7.30pm: Bloomsday Portobello
Meeting Point: Portobello Community Hall, 46 Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin 8
Wind down on Bloomsday with some light refreshments and entertainment, readings from Eanna Ní Lamhna and a performance from actor Michael Judd, who will recount the story of the 1904 Ascot Gold Cup and the mighty ‘Sceptre’, the greatest filly of all time!
The Balloonatics’ nightcap performance will be the performance of a dramatised reading from Joyce’s Ulysses at Wynn’s Hotel on Monday, June 16th at 7.30pm. We then open up to the floor and invite you to read a short passage from Joyce’s epic celebration of daily life.
This year the big group of six (actors Mark Wale, Paul O’Hanrahan, Mick Greer, Paul Dornan, Chris Bilton and musician John Goudie) present ‘The Many Trials of Leopold Bloom’ in which Bloom finds himself in a shady part of Dublin at night and his desires, guilt and fears are converted into comedy nightmares and fantasies.
The show is based on the opening half of the ‘Circe’ episode of Ulysses which takes place in the late evening of June 16th and is set in Nighttown, Joyce’s name for the notorious ‘Monto’ area of Dublin where Bloom is looking for Stephen Dedalus.
This is a unique Bloomsday event in Dublin: a fully dramatised adaptation of Ulysses compressed into 80 action filled minutes. Drama, comedy, song, and dance combine to produce an unforgettable and enlightening insight into James Joyce’s masterpiece. The play has been building year-on-year since 2010 and Ulysses aWake 2025 is infused with all the fun of Finnegans Wake. Performed by a troupe of 18 at the heart of the village looking out over the sea, this is theatre for everybody who loves Joyce’s Ireland.
All welcome, admission free, seating provided. Come early, enjoy the pre-show convivial atmosphere, and sample tasty snacks inside the amphitheatre that Blackrock Village Centre becomes on Bloomsday.
Join us at Dalkey Castle on Bloomsday, 16th June at 3:30pm, when the “Nestor” episode from Ulysses will be brought to life before your eyes in a memorable dramatisation.
The schoolroom where the scene is set is nearby on Dalkey Avenue. There are other surprising Dalkey connections with Joyce which will be uncovered in the guided joycean walk led by Joyce expert Joe Dunne immediately after the performance.
The whole event runs for around two hours.
Tickets are €28.95.
Outside of Bloomsday festival celebrations, you can Rejoyce in Joyce through our Joycean experience.
The event is supported by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Join us at The James Joyce Center on Bloomsday, Monday June 16th at 12pm for some ‘midday mumming madness’ as the extraordinary talent of the Fingal Mummers will explore mummery in Ulysses and other works of James Joyce in their production of Everyman His Own Wife.
Throughout Ulysses, Buck Mulligan calls Stephen “A lovely mummer!”; “Kinch, the loveliest mummer of them all!”; “O, you peerless mummer!” Mulligan declares that “I have conceived a play for the mummers” and launches into the title page of a lewd skit. The James Joyce Centre will be truly transformed as we watch the Fingal Mummers celebrate Bloomsday with comedy, music, mischief and song. Come witness this truly unique Irish tradition during this truly unique Irish festival.
11am: Elevenses with Leopold
Venue: Sandymount Community Centre, Newbridge Avenue, Dublin 4
Enjoy an elegant start to your Bloomsday with morning coffee, croissants and a dash of gentle Joycean entertainment. €5 admission with proceeds going to the Centre. Tickets sold at the door.
12.30pm: Seven Scenes from Ulysses
Meeting Point: Sandymount Green, Sandymount, Dublin 4
Enjoy a stroll around Sandymount as you watch pivotal scenes from Ulysses come alive in the company of Leopold Bloom and other characters from the book.
The event is free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated. For more information, please email info@sandymountcommunitycentre.ie.
11am: Ranelagh Readings on Bloomsday
Meeting Point: Ranelagh Arts Centre, 6 Ranelagh, Dublin 6
Enjoy a celebratory coffee morning of literature with Anne Haverty, Deirdre Mulrooney and other writers who will be reading from their own works and Joyce’s work. Feel free to bring along your own favourite passages and quotes from Ulysses and join in on the readings!
Glasnevin Cemetery has been celebrating Bloomsday since 2010 and it is now a firm favourite for Bloomsday pilgrims. On June 16th 1904, Glasnevin was the venue for the funeral of the fictional Paddy Dignam, attended by Joyce’s protagonist Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. This year to celebrate this historic date, Experience Glasnevin will host a performance of the ‘Hades’ episode of Ulysses performed by the Joycestagers and a Joycean tour of the cemetery itself. Explore the ‘underworld’ of Ulysses in one of the most popular Bloomsday events!
11am: Reenactment of the funeral procession of Paddy Dignam from the ‘Hades’ episode. Free to attend. No ticket is necessary.
12pm: A Joycean Tour of the heart of the Hibernian necropolis, Glasnevin Cemetery, which has many significant links to Joyce’s life and writing. Tickets are required: €15 general, €13 concession.
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 Bandstand, 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 Balloonatics are back once again on June 16th and will be spanning the day with on-location recreations of Ulysses in Dublin city centre. This year we have a big team of experienced performers: Mark Wale, Paul O’Hanrahan, Mick Greer, Paul Dornan, Chris Bilton and musician John Goudie.
Join us on Bloomsday throughout the day: we are presenting two theatrical walks (nobooking required) and one outdoor performance. All our street events are free of charge but we do like to pass the hat at the end to meet our costs.
8am: 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 immersive tour follows the ‘Calypso’ episode of Ulysses, chapter 4.
11am: From Capel Street to Courthouse
Meet on the wide side of Grattan Bridge over the Liffey.
This theatrical tour with commentary visits sites linked with the ‘Sirens’ and ‘Cyclops’ episodes of Ulysses, chapters 11 and 12, and explores Capel Street’s Joyce connections.
3 pm: The Cabman’s Shelter
Meet under the railway bridge near Beresford Place.
This performance of excerpts from the ‘Eumaeus’ chapter takes place at the site of the Cabman’s Shelter where late at night Bloom buys Stephen coffee and a bun. A new addition to Bloomsday, developed in association with the James Joyce Centre.
Strolling Through Ulysses! by Robert Gogan is a 75-minute one-man show that tells the fun-filled story of Bloomsday. Written and performed by Robert Gogan, the play guides you through the curious events and quirky characters of Ulysses in a humorous, entertaining, and informative manner, with extracts from the novel which best illustrate the various aspects of Joyce’s writing – the comical, the descriptive and the complex – without compromising the integrity of the great book. Bawdy, irreverent, and great fun!
The play is part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)’s Outdoors programme on the eve of Bloomsday, the 15th of June 2024 at 12pm. The show will begin in the courtyard of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
The event is not ticketed so you are welcome to rock up, grab a seat, a snack, coffee or something stronger from Camerino Bakery at IMMA’s onsite food truck and enjoy the show!
‘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.
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 €32.95.
The event is supported by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
A companion piece to Telemachus at the James Joyce Tower, the Volta Theatre Company has added the “Cyclops” episode of Ulysses to its Bloomsday repertoire on Monday, June 9th and Tuesday, June 10th at 6pm in the DRL Lexicon.
Leopold Bloom finds himself in the proverbial lion’s den of Barney Kiernan’s, where the ‘broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed’ Citizen demonstrates the ugly side of Irish nationalism. Inflammatory speeches over afternoon pints, decrying the British Empire and ‘foreigners’ in general, lead to an antisemitic rant against Bloom and an assault with a biscuit tin.
Performed by Oliver Flitcroft, Liam Hourican, Jim Roche and Darragh Shannon, this hilarious, sharply satirical piece makes its debut this June.
Step inside the iconic Martello Tower in Sandycove, Dublin, and experience the opening episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses brought to life with this extraordinary production by Volta Theatre Company.
Directed by Liam Hourican and starring Oliver Flitcroft, Darragh Shannon, Daniel Mahon and Geraldine Plunkett, this adaptation will transport you back to 1904 and the intense, impecunious lifestyle of two young men with literary ambitions.
Set in the iconic Sandycove Martello Tower and environs, this is an exuberant, ambient production that will faithfully recreate the first episode of Ulysses.
There will be two performances a day from 9-16 June at 9.30am and 11am. 40 minutes running time.
Bewley’s Cafe Theatre is proud to present as part of the Bloomsday Festival 2025 Counterparts & A Little Cloud from James Joyce’s Dubliners. These two short stories from Joyce’s debut work are vivid ‘slices of life’ in early 20th century Dublin, revealing a society in paralysis, desperately awaiting change.
Stunningly accompanied by live music, we follow a pair of Dublin characters portrayed in immaculately detailed scenes: In “Counterparts,” a frustrated law clerk is determined to have a big night’s drinking, while in “A Little Cloud,” a sensitive soul is thrown by a meeting with an old university friend back from London. At once funny and tragic, the stories are populated with an array of colourful characters who, despite the bowler hats and Edwardian collars, remain entirely contemporary.
‘lighting up the genius of Joyce’s Dubliners’ Sunday Independent
‘beautifully dramatised and served up as a lunchtime treat… a perfect hour’s entertainment’ Irish Independent
‘two superbly articulated performances’ The Arts Review
‘a superb dramatised introduction to one of the greatest short-story collections in world literature’ Frank McNally, The Irish Times
Volta Theatre Company is a new company with the remit to bring classical theatre to a wide audience. Its’ founders are Liam Hourican and Jim Roche, who have collaborated for many years in theatre and TV. Liam has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, the Old Vic and Second Age Theatre company and has written and performed sketch shows and comedy drama for Channel 4, RTE and the BBC. Jim has starred in Normal People (directed by Lenny Abramson) (BBC), Harry Wild (Acorn TV), Blood 2 (Virgin Media), Vikings (History Channel), Damo and Ivor, Fair City, Killinaskully, The Mario Rosenstock Show, Dead Still (RTE), The Tudors (Showtime) and iCandy (Channel 4). Musicians Feilimidh Nunan and Conor Sheil regularly work with all the principal orchestras in Ireland (National Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Wexford Festival Orchestra, Irish National Opera Orchestra). Their professional interests have led them to collaborate with many other groups in film and theatre but also in different musical genres ranging from jazz to traditional music.
Duration: 60 minutes
Age Guidance: 12+
Adult themes, reference to domestic abuse.
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible via the main Grafton Street entrance with a lift to the second floor.
Showtimes: 2-16 June 2025 Extra 3pm show on Bloomsday, Monday, June 16th (Tickets €15) (No show on Monday, June 9th or Sunday, June 15th) Mon-Sat at 1pm (doors open at 12.50pm)
JOHN, MAY, JAMES AND ME is a captivating family drama based on the writings of Stanislaus Joyce, the younger brother of the renowned James Joyce. The play delves into the complex relationships within the Joyce family, featuring their long-suffering mother, May, and their drunken, spendthrift father, John, whose actions led the family to ruin. Through a blend of humor and pathos, song and story, the play offers a unique insider’s perspective on the chaotic domestic life that profoundly influenced the works of one of the 20th century’s greatest novelists.
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.
11am: Elevenses with Leopold
Venue: Sandymount Community Centre, Newbridge Avenue, Dublin 4
Enjoy an elegant start to your Bloomsday with morning coffee, croissants and a dash of gentle Joycean entertainment. €5 admission with proceeds going to the Centre. Tickets are sold at the door.
1pm: Ulysses Goes Wild in Sandymount
Meeting Point: Sandymount Green, Sandymount, Dublin 4
Join author of “Wild Dublin”, Eanna Ní Lamhna, star of RTÉ’s The Mooney Show and Virgin Media’s The Six O’Clock Show, for a 60-minute nature tour inspired by the “marriage of trees” from the Cyclops episode of Ulysses. This event will be followed by some street theatre in the village. The event is free and open to the public.
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!
Join us at the James Joyce Center on Bloomsday, Sunday June 16th at 12pm for some ‘midday mumming madness’ as the extraordinary talent of the Fingal Mummers will explore mummery in Ulysses and other works of James Joyce in their production of Everyman His Own Wife.
Throughout Ulysses, Buck Mulligan calls Stephen “A lovely mummer!”; “Kinch, the loveliest mummer of them all!”; “O, you peerless mummer!” Mulligan declares that “I have conceived a play for the mummers” and launches into the title page of a lewd skit. The James Joyce Centre will be truly transformed as we watch the Fingal Mummers celebrate Bloomsday with comedy, music, mischief and song. Come witness this truly unique Irish tradition during this truly unique Irish festival.
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)
The James Joyce Centre is proud to present a performance of John, May, James and Meby Eddie Naughton.
Stanislaus Joyce was the younger brother of James Joyce. Born in Dublin, Stanislaus was considered a “Whetstone” by his more famous brother, who shared his ideas and his books with him. He was three years younger than James and was his constant boyhood companion. Stanislaus rebelled against his native Ireland as his brother had done, and, in 1905, he joined James’s household in Trieste. He wrote an unfinished memoir called My Brother’s Keeper, on which the play John, May, James and Me by Eddie Naughton is based, along with other writings.
The play looks at the Joyce family dynamic through the eyes of Stanislaus, from their father, John, a feckless Cork character with notions, to the long-suffering mother, May. It also looks in depth at the relationship between the two brothers over many years. Their trials and tribulations. The good times and bad. What was it like having a literary genius as a brother? How do you stop him from destroying his gift and even himself?
Performed by Pat Nolan. Directed by Bairbre Ni Chaoimh.
Eddie Naughton is a playwright based in The Liberties area of Dublin. His play John, May, James and Me isa Joyce family memoir, based on the writings of Stanislaus Joyce. Other plays he has written include Bullfight on Third Avenue, Joxer Daly Esq,The Exiling of Sean O’Casey,Adrian Phelan is Going Home, and a trilogy of drug plays (Franner and Joey, The Boy with the Halogyn Hair and The Trouble with Bobo).
Bairbre Ni Chaoimh is an actor, director and writer. She has toured nationally and internationally with all the major Irish theatre companies. She was an Associate Artist at the Abbey Theatre for three years and while Artistic Director of Calypso Productions she received an Irish Times award and a MAMA. Directing creditsinclude three plays for The Gate Theatre’s Beckett Festival, which toured to The Barbican, London and The Lincoln Center, New York and Catalpa by Donal O’Kelly, which has won awards on three continents. She directed Noni Stapleton’s one-woman show, Charolais which received a host of awards including The Stewart Parker Award and The Little Gem Award. She recently directed the Irish premiere of Stumped, a playabout Pinter and Beckett, for Bewleys Café Theatre.
Pat Nolan trained at DYT and The Focus Stanislavski Studio and appeared in many of their shows. He has an MA in Theatre from GSA/Maynooth University. He has acted, directed, and produced shows nationally and internationally. Stage work includes Cinderella and Borstal Boy at the Gaiety, 12 Angry Men at the Olympia, Risk Everything with Whirlygig, Uncle Vanyaat the Gate, Oedipus and The Wake at the Abbey. He toured extensively with Take Off Your Cornflakes. Probably best known to audiences for playing Barry in Fair City, for which he won the Rose d’Or award in Switzerland.
Glasnevin Cemetery has been celebrating Bloomsday since 2010 and it is now a firm favourite for Bloomsday pilgrims. On June 16th 1904, Glasnevin was the venue for the funeral of the fictional Paddy Dignam, attended by Joyce’s protagonist Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. This year to celebrate this historic date, Experience Glasnevin will host a performance of the ‘Hades’ episode of Ulysses performed by the Joycestagers and a Joycean tour of the cemetery itself. Explore the ‘underworld’ of Ulysses in one of the most popular Bloomsday events!
11am: Reenactment of the funeral procession of Paddy Dignam from the ‘Hades’ episode. Free to attend. No ticket is necessary.
12pm: A Joycean Tour of the heart of the Hibernian necropolis, Glasnevin Cemetery, which has many significant links to Joyce’s life and writing. Tickets are required: €14 general, €12 concession.
The New Theatre and Smashing Times present Sole Flower, Spidered Soul by Féilim James, a new play about James Joyce and his daughter Lucia for the Bloomsday Festival.
Lucia Joyce and her father James are roused from death by an eloquent clown.
The duo’s joyful reunion soon gives way told quarrels, as they debate the reasons why Lucia spent nearly half a century in psychiatric hospitals. Clown, who holds the power to alter the past, presents James with a dilemma.
Will he erase his own literary legacy to afford Lucia a second chance in life, or will he keep things as they were?
This funny and moving play pits personal ambition against love of family, all the while challenging prevailing notions about its protagonists: Lucia as the mad daughter, and James as the genius father who did all he could to save her.
Director – Patrick Joseph Byrnes
Cast – Fiona Bawn-Thompson, Michael McCabe & Daniel Mahon.
Stage Management – Eva Walsh
The James Joyce Centre is proud to host a special Bloomsday showing of the Volta Theatre Company’s Counterparts & A Little Cloud, an adaptation of two short stories from Joyce’s debut work Dubliners.
Joyce’s collection of short stories provides vivid ‘slices of life’ of early 20th century Dublin. Against the backdrop of a society in paralysis, a pair of Dublin lives are revealed in stark, sometimes brutal, scenes. In Counterparts, an ungainly, bad-tempered law clerk is determined to have a heavy night’s drinking, while in A Little Cloud, a sensitive soul is embittered by a meeting with an old university friend back from London. At once funny and tragic, relatable and disturbing, the stories are populated with an array of colourful characters who remain entirely contemporary, despite the bowler hats and Edwardian collars.
Performed by two actors in the iconic setting of the Joyce Centre’s Georgian drawing room, and featuring period music, this is an exquisite, intimate study of Joyce’s Dublin and its lives of quiet desperation.
Volta is a collaboration between classically-trained actors and musicians, combining theatre with cabaret, jazz and sketch comedy. Its remit is to bring classical theatre to a wide audience. Liam Hourican has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, the Old Vic, and Second Age Theatre company and has written and performed sketch shows and comedy drama for Channel 4, RTE and the BBC. Jim Roche has starred in Normal People, Harry Wild, Blood 2, Vikings, Damo and Ivor, Killinaskully, The Mario Rosenstock Show, The Tudors, and iCandy. Musicians Feilimidh Nunan and Conor Sheil work with all the principal orchestras in Ireland and have collaborated in a wide variety of musical genres ranging from jazz to traditional music.
On this special 120th Bloomsday anniversary, step into “Telemachus,” the opening episode of Ulysses, in the very setting that inspired it.
Directed by Liam Hourican and starring Oliver Flitcroft, Darragh Shannon, Daniel Mahon and Geraldine Plunkett, this new adaptation will transport you back to 1904 and the intense, impecunious lifestyle of two young men with literary ambitions.
Set in the iconic Martello Tower and environs, this is an exuberant, ambient production that will faithfully recreate the first episode of Ulysses.
Performances:
June 15th: 8am, 9:30am, 11am, and 2pm
June 16th: 9:30am and 11am. *At 9am, An Cathaoirleach Denis O’Callaghan raises the flay to commemorate the 120 year anniversary of Bloomsday.
The Citizens’ Breakfast is a lively promenade play written by Gráinne O Kelly and Tara Derrington that celebrates June 16th 1904, when James Joyce set off from his lodgings at No. 60 Shelbourne Road to go on his first date with Nora Barnacle, his lifelong partner and eventual wife. Their date would be immortalised as the day on which Ulysses is set, since christened as Bloomsday!
The play is performed by Damien Davaney and Fiona Browne with guest appearances by members of the local community along the street.
Act 1 (about 30 minutes) takes place outside on the street (free for all) consisting of five vignettes. Then the action moves in Act 2 to local hostelry Slattery’s Pub (ticketed entry only). You will sup and taste a morsel or two with Joyce, Bloom, and other characters. There is harp music with light refreshment served. We will finish with a little sing song!
Dress up (or down) in Edwardian style if you wish!
When?
15 June 2024. Two separate performances at 11:30am and 3:30pm.
Duration?
1 hour and 15 mins. Please arrive 10 mins before start time.
Where?
We will meet at 68 Shelbourne Road, Dublin 4 D04 R3N0.
Cost?
Tickets are €12.50 via Eventbrite.
The event is organised in partnership with the Lansdowne and District Residents’ Association. Thanks also to Aviva Stadium Community Fund, Slattery’s Pub, Codling Wind Park & Lotts & Co Beggar’s Bush for their core support.
The Dubliners Dilemma was premiered in Ireland in 2012 and has toured to Norway, USA, India, Russia (pre-Ukraine invasion) and all over Ireland. Described as a “truly mesmerizing performance” (Metro Herald), it finds London publisher Grant Richards re-reading the manuscript of Dubliners in 1914, eight full years after he initially rejected it on the grounds it might breach strict obscenity laws. Joyce’s Dublin comes to wild life around him, a city of innocence and perversion: of sexual predators, gigolos, gamblers and drinkers mingling among street children, housemaids and exquisite concert singers. Entranced again by the literary gifts of the truculent Irish author who refused to change a single word, Richards must decide whether to take the risk second time around, and be the one finally to bring the genius of Joyce to the world.
Written and performed by Declan Gorman. Directed by Gerard Lee.
“Gorman holds the audience enraptured throughout with a truly mesmerising performance. This original adaptation is by no means exclusively for die-hard Joyce fans, making a brilliant introduction for newcomers!” Metro Herald, Dublin
“Gorman is a compelling performer, at his best when undertaking childhood roles and in his element with Joyce’s obsequious characters … an animated and intelligent performance.” Irish Theatre Magazine
Join Lua McIlraith and The Lilliput Players for “A Taste of Joyce” outside the James Joyce Tower on Bloomsday for an afternoon of readings, poems, dramatisations of the works of the legendary author and songs associated with him. Immerse yourself in the world of James Joyce as we bring his words to life at a unique location.
Whether you’re a die-hard fan or just curious to learn more, this event promises to be a memorable experience!. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest literary figures of all time. If you were ever too scared of Joyce, you need no longer be. See you there!
There will be both seating and standing places available. Tickets are free but booking is essential.
‘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.
Bewley’s Café Theatre in association with the Bloomsday Festival is proud to present a theatrical adaptation of “Grace” by James Joyce.
Grace is a tale of booze, bombast and religious confusion that brilliantly satirises the role of the Catholic Church in early twentieth century Irish life. When struggling salesman, Tom Kernan, is found drunk and injured in a pub toilet and brought home in disgrace to his long suffering wife, his friends hatch a plot to save him from his errant ways.
Dubliners, first published in 1914, is one of the great short story collections in the English language. By exploring the lives of his fellow Dublin citizens with unflinching realism, Joyce revealed truths both blasphemous and transcendent.
This new production of the classic Dubliners story features the actor and comedian, Terry O’Neill, who brings to life Joyce’s rare collection of characters and takes you on a hilarious journey from purgatory to paradise that is perfect for the Festive Season. The production will be performed in Bewley’s Café, which was itself referenced in Dubliners.
“O’Neill…does a terrific job of creating an excellent range of at least five different Dublin voices.” Irish Independent
“Sandra Butler’s simple design is delightfully and imaginatively impressive.” Sunday Independent
“O’Neill brings considerable energy and skill as the narrator.” Nomoreworkhorse
Age guidance: 12+
Duration: 50 minutes
BOOKING INFORMATION
June 10th – 16th at 1pm There will be an extra on Bloomsday, Sunday, 16th at 3pm Mon-Sat at 1pm (doors open at 12.50pm) Tickets: Low-price Mon/Tues €10, Wed/Thurs €12, Fri/Sat/Sun €15.
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible via the main Grafton Street entrance with a lift to the second floor. For aural or visual needs, we can seat people towards the front (contact 0868784001 to arrange).
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.
This is a unique Bloomsday event in Dublin: a fully dramatised adaptation of Ulysses compressed into 80 action filled minutes. Drama, comedy, song, and dance combine to produce an unforgettable and enlightening insight into James Joyce’s masterpiece. The play has been building year-on-year since 2010 and Ulysses aWake 2024 is infused with all the fun of Finnegans Wake. Performed by a troupe of 18 at the heart of the village looking out over the sea, this is theatre for everybody who loves Joyce’s Ireland.
All welcome, admission free, seating provided. Come early, enjoy the pre-show convivial atmosphere, and sample tasty snacks inside the amphitheatre that Blackrock Village Centre becomes on Bloomsday.
Join us at Dalkey Castle on Bloomsday, 16th June at 3:30pm, when the “Nestor” episode from Ulysses will be brought to life before your eyes in a memorable dramatisation.
The schoolroom where the scene is set is nearby on Dalkey Avenue. There are other surprising Dalkey connections with Joyce which will be uncovered in the guided joycean walk led by Joyce expert Joe Dunne immediately after the performance.
The whole event runs for around two hours. Tickets are €22.95.
Outside of Bloomsday festival celebrations, you can Rejoyce in Joyce through our Joycean experience.
The event is supported by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Strolling Through Ulysses! by Robert Gogan is a 75-minute one-man show that tells the fun-filled story of Bloomsday. Written and performed by Robert Gogan, the play guides you through the curious events and quirky characters of Ulysses in a humorous, entertaining, and informative manner, with extracts from the novel which best illustrate the various aspects of Joyce’s writing – the comical, the descriptive and the complex – without compromising the integrity of the great book. Bawdy, irreverent, and great fun!
The play is part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)’s Outdoors programme on the eve of Bloomsday, the 16th of June 2024 at 3pm. The event is not ticketed so you are welcome to rock up, grab a seat, a snack, coffee or something stronger from Camerino Bakery at IMMA’s onsite food truck and enjoy the show!
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.
