Join OPW Custom House Visitor Centre’s resident Joycín to discover the building and surrounding area’s relevance to the life and works of James “Disgustin” Joyce. You will be provided with a skeleton map (purely psychogeographic) which will serve as a point of access for the as yet uninitiated and may even offer a new direction for any poor unfortunate (academic) lost in the weeds.
The tour is offered on Wednesday, June 13th and Friday, June 15th at 1pm. The tours are free but booking is essential.
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.
Join Dublin historian Terry Fagan on a special two-hour walking tour around Monto, one of the most notorious redlight districts in all of Europe at the turn of the 20th century, what James Joyce immortalised as “Nighttown” in the “Circe” episode of Ulysses.
Walk the streets steeped in history as Terry explains the stories of Monto madams, their cruel pimps, and the women trapped in a life of prostitution. Stories of murders and mayhem. How the women in the brothels gathered intelligence and guns from British soldiers to give to the IRA. How they helped unmask a British spy during the Irish War of Independence. Hear about the 1925 police raid on Monto’s brothels and their closure, followed by a large-scale religious march by Frank Duff and his Legion of Mary.
See and hear about 82 Tyrone (now Railway) Street, the location of Bella Cohen’s brothel that Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus visit in Ulysses.
This is a unique opportunity to explore an area of Dublin unlike any other, one frequented by paupers and princes (literally) and remembered by the likes of Joyce and the Irish band The Dubliners, among many others.
Day and Time: 16 June 2024 at 11am
Starting Point: James Joyce Statue, North Earth Street
Pat Liddy Walking Tours are ideal for those interested in a first introduction to James Joyce and will celebrate the life of the iconic Irish writer by walking through the streets of Dublin, the city he immortalized in his ground-breaking novel, Ulysses.
The itinerary, lasting approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, will partly follow in the footsteps of the book’s main character, Leopold Bloom, in his famous wanderings in the year 1904 and there will be liberal quotations from Ulysses as we stroll along. On this colourful occasion many people will be gaily dressed in the flamboyant costumes of the period so please feel free to do the same!
Meeting Point: Outside the Gate Theatre on Cavendish Row (just beyond the top of O’Connell Street).
Tickets are €25 general, €15 concession. Free under 12 years old with an adult (except for student groups). Booking and further information: https://www.walkingtours.ie/bloomsday-walk
Joycean guides Dr. Michael Quinn and Billy Fitzpatrick will lead you on this fascinating Bloomsday walking tour through Dublin’s North City following the exact route of “the superior, the very reverend” Father John Conmee S.J. in the “Wandering Rocks” episode of Ulysses.
The tour route includes Mountjoy Square, Great Charles Street, North Circular Road, North Richmond Street, Portland Row, Aldborough House, Five Lamps, North Strand Road, Newcomen Bridge, and Charleville Mall.
Tour 1: Departing 10.25am with a finish time around 12.30 p.m.
Tour 2: Departing 2:55pm (as per “Wandering Rocks”) with a finish time around 5.00 p.m.
The meeting point is in front of St. Francis Xavier’s Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1.
Tickets are €15.
Dr. Michael Quinn is the author of Araby House, James Joyce and all the neighbours on North Richmond Street, Dublin, 1820-1998 (Dublin, 2023), (available for purchase at the James Joyce Centre). Billy Fitzpatrick is an author and former president of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland.
“He crossed the bridge over the stream of the Tolka, and turned his eyes coldly for an instant towards the faded blue shrine of the Blessed Virgin which stood fowl wise on a pole in the middle of a hamshaped encampment of poor cottages. Then, bending to the left, he followed the lane which led up to his house.” –A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
“that she would never forget her hero boy who went to his death with a song on his lips as if he were but going to a hurling match in Clonturk Park.” –Ulysses
On the 120th anniversary of Bloomsday, Drumcondra Joycean Jaunters will convene at the current day shrine of the Blessed Virgin in Our Lady’s Park on the banks of the Tolka, across from Fagan’s, to celebrate the day. We will follow the short route taken by Stephen Dedalus to his home on Millbourne Avenue. There, under the shadow of the Drumcondra Library, we will celebrate the day in the spirit (non-alcoholic!) of the first Bloomsday “jant” held 70 years ago in 1954, when amongst others, Patrick Kavanagh (whose first Dublin home was in Drumcondra), set out on a Ulyssesean pilgrimage.
All are welcome to join us on this Bloomsday Sunday, including GAA fans on their way to Croke Park!
As Irish poet Seamus Heaney once said, the English language opens “like an accordion…at the hands of a musician” in Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses.
Join our guides on Wednesday, June 12th at 1pm for a special tour of ‘Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again’ at the Bank of Ireland on Westmoreland Street. In collaboration with the Bloomsday Festival, the tour will delve into the Joycean inspirations and connections in the early drafts of Heaney’s work.
The ‘Lestrygonians’ episode of Ulysses sees Leopold Bloom make his way through the city centre on his way from Middle Abbey Street to the National Library. As he begins to feel the rumblings of hunger, his thoughts become centred on the social, political cultural and religious significance of food; as he goes on to think, food underlies all relations to the extent that “peace and war depend on some fellow’s digestion.” Bloom’s musings on the importance of food are mixed with a commentary on the architecture that surrounds him, emphasising Dublin’s position as a colonial city. Join our guide as we follow in Bloom’s footsteps and discuss these thoughts, focusing on Joyce’s effort to bring the unsavoury workings of the body into a work of art and use food as the basis of a political and social commentary.
This tour is ideal for fans of Ulysses and for those who want a truly immersive Joycean experience!
Day and Time: 11-16 June at 2pm
Start Location: James Joyce Centre, 35 Great George’s Street North
End Location: The National Museum, Kildare Street
Distance: 2 km
Duration: Approximately 2 hours
Group Size: 20 maximum
We ask that you arrive at least 15 minutes early for check-in.
Though Joyce lived most of his life outside of Ireland, Dublin would provide the backdrop for virtually all of his work. On a stroll around the north inner city, our guide will explain the real-life inspiration behind some of Joyce’s most celebrated writing and will show just how central the streetscape of the “Hibernian metropolis” is to the author’s life and art. The tour visits stops such as Joyce’s alma mater, Belvedere College; North Hardwicke Street, the setting of the short story “The Boarding House”; The Gresham Hotel, the setting of the final and most memorable scene of the short story “The Dead”; and the James Joyce Statue on North Earl Street, affectionately known as the “Prick with the Stick.” The tour also includes a visit to the site of one of the most famous addresses in English literature, No. 7 Eccles Street, and retraces the steps of Leopold Bloom’s celebrated journey to buy a pork kidney in the fourth episode of Ulysses.
This is an excellent and fun introduction to Joyce in a bustling part of the city!
Day and Time: 11-16 June at 11am
Start Location: James Joyce Centre, 35 Great George’s Street North
End Location: James Joyce Statue, North Earth Street
Distance: 2 km
Duration: Approximately 2 hours
Group Size: 20 maximum
We ask that you arrive at least 15 minutes early for check-in.
