Course
11 March — 3 June 2026
We are delighted to announce our annual Ulysses for All course will start on 11th March 2026. Join our global readership and guest speakers at the James Joyce Centre where Dr. Caroline Elbay will lead Ulysses for All 2026: ‘Back to Basics: Ulysses and the Meaning of Life Today – The Reader Responds.’
Course Details:
-Hybrid Zoom/In-Person at the James Joyce Centre
-Start Date: 11th March 2026
-End Date: 3rd June 2026
-Time: Every Wednesday at 6-8pm GMT
-Fee: €180
Classes will be recorded. Spaces are limited so it is advisable to register in advance.
The course description is below:
Faced with myriad crises of humanity ranging from war and conflict in the Middle East and Europe together with ongoing political upheaval and the rise of fascism and the ‘far right’ in the US and Europe, the sentiments of Yeats’s poem ‘The Second Coming’ provide a chilling sense of prescience: ‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre… the centre cannot hold…Things fall apart…The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity’.
As much a guide to contemporary life as a virtuoso work of literary commentary, Ulysses is, without doubt, a pedagogic text – one that offers a humane view of a more tolerant and decent life despite the pressures of our modern world. The book invites us to look into our own humanity in a world currently engulfed by chaos due to religious, nationalist, and imperialist aggression – ideologies which Joyce would dub ‘the wisdom of the old world’.
Join us at the James Joyce Centre and online via Zoom for the return of our ever-popular structured reading course Ulysses for All (2026). Led by Dubliner and Joycean, Dr. Caroline Elbay, the group will work through the episodes of Joyce’s masterpiece in a structured, accessible, analytical, and relaxed environment. Beginning 11 March, the course runs over 12 weeks and will finish ahead of Bloomsday on 3 June – just in time for you to boast to the pretenders in costume that you’ve actually read the book!
Ulysses for All (now in its 14th year) has and continues to show that contrary to popular perception, Joyce’s epic was not written exclusively for the academics, but for everyman. Ulysses is a celebration of the ordinary and mundane, of the tediums and joys of everyday life. It is a book that embraces the notion of a common shared humanity – making it just as relevant today as when it was first published in 1922.
An ‘optional extra’ to this year’s reading will also present an opportunity to engage creatively with the text, and responses in various media (critical writing/ creative writing/ visual arts/ drama/ music) will be most welcome (though not compulsory).
Special guest speakers (including Liz Gillis, Ray Clarke, Senan Molony, and others) will offer expert insights across their subject areas.
We look forward to seeing you in Ulysses for All 2026!
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.