To celebrate 100 years of Ulysses, this year’s Bloomsday Festival will fill Dublin City with all the joy, fun and creativity of James Joyce’s epic novel. With over 100 different events to be encountered, spread over a whole week of entertainment, the festival focus will be on celebrating the city, its theatres, art, parks, beaches, music, waterways, streets, squares, pubs and people.
Sample the real places and spaces of Ulysses with a swim in the Forty Foot and visit to the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove, fill your senses with lemon soap and lots more at besides at Sweny’s Chemist. Take the new ‘Paddy Dignam’ tour and Joyce Exhibition at Glasnevin Cemetery, listen to the bell ringers of Taney Road Church ring the bells that set Leopold Bloom off on his wanderings ‘ Heigh Ho Heigh ho’.
Walk into eternity on Sandymount Strand with national treasure Eanna Ni Lamhna. Sample the gastronomic delights of Davy Byrnes pub where a stage will be set up for two days of street performances, enjoy the splendor of the reading room of the National Library with a special evening opening on Bloomsday or why not simply feed a seagull on O’ Connell Bridge.
Highlights of this years festival are certainly the exciting range of theatrical and musical performances, including the exceptional Corn Exchange’s Dubliners in Smock Alley and enchanting evening concert of Chamber Music at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Not to be missed for Ulysses 100 is Barry McGovern reading the entire Ulysses on the Abbey Theatre’s Peacock stage.
The Bloomsday Film Festival will be live throughout the city in the IFI, Sugar Club and James Joyce Centre. Joycean and literary themed short and feature films will bring us on an incredible cinematic odyssey.
Visit the glorious MOLI Bloomsday Programme at the Museum of Literature Ireland, where Joyce attended college before setting off on his European adventures. Take a Ulysses themed walk along the Royal Canal or follow in Father Conmee’s footsteps. Enjoy a feast of Ulysses and Joyce art exhibitions at the National Gallery, James Joyce Centre, Oliver Cornet Gallery, Smock Alley and the Graphic Studio.
For younger audiences a special reading of the Cat and The Devil, Joyce’s children’s story written for his grandson Stephen wil take place at the James Joyce Centre, while the Chester Beatty will once again run their Joyce inspired online workshop.
On Bloomsday itself, immerse yourself in a glorious afternoon of Ulysses Readings and Songs in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, as comedians, actors, writers and musicians guide you through the novel.
Once again, we will bring Bloomsday and all its fun back to the heart of the Hibernian Metropolis.
www.bloomsdayfestival.ie