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Sirens in Bloom


Photography Exhibition by Tom Lawlor

6 June 2022 – Present

To mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Súileir and The James Joyce Centre invited Dublin photographer Tom Lawlor to revisit the novel and see if he could find parallels with contemporary Dublin. We were very pleased and surprised when the assignment yielded a bouquet of exceptional pictures portraying the women in Ulysses with an original and distinctive interpretation.

In Ulysses, Joyce presents us with a city full of extraordinary women. These are working women, creative women, passionate, sexual, witty, and clever women. They are singers and shop assistants, barmaids and brothel keepers; they are grieving widows, defiant daughters, frustrated wives, and midwives minding mothers through the throes of childbirth. The siren women of Ulysses guide us to participate fully in this seemingly meandering and unimportant day. They give us the agency to find a light and belief within us all.

A photographic book, which Súileir is proud to exhibit and publish, is available for purchase at the James Joyce Centre and online: https://suileir.ie/sp/sirens-in-bloom-sales-pages-1/?partners=3.