The James Joyce Centre is situated in a gorgeous 18th-century Georgian townhouse. On Friday, 20 September 2024 from 6 to 8pm, visitors explored our house and exhibitions, including:
Mamalujo: A history of the publication of Finnegans Wake.
Three art installations based on Ulysses, including “Ulysses: Illustrations” by Remi Rousseau.
Film screenings.
Ulysses VR: A virtual reality headset based on scenes from Ulysses.
The door from No. 7 Eccles Street, the home of Leopold and Molly Bloom in Ulysses.
Various manuscripts and materials from Joyce’s time.
The beautiful plasterwork by 18th-century stuccodore Michael Stapleton, a beautiful example of high-Georgian architecture.
Antelope Productions in association with The Goldsmith Festival presents
THE MISADVENTURES OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH
ADAPTED FROM WASHINGTON IRVING’S LIFE OF GOLDSMITH BY MICHAEL JAMES FORD
Starring Ben Wadell, Sinead Murphy and Michael James Ford
Thursday, July 4th – Saturday, July 6th at 8.00pm
Runtime: 80 mins.
THE JAMES JOYCE CENTRE, 35 N GREAT GEORGE’S STREET, DUBLIN 1
To mark the 250th Anniversary of the death of Oliver Goldsmith, this new comic drama tells the story of the chaotic life of the great Irish writer. From his humble beginnings as the son of a poor parson in Co Longford, it charts his youthful adventures and travels and his gradual rise to prominence as one of the leading lights of the London literary scene.
Continually thwarted by his own impulsive and intemperate nature and often dogged by misfortune, Goldsmith’s life is a rollercoaster of success and failure, euphoria and despair. But for all his eccentricities, he was a man who inspired laughter and affection and enjoyed the friendship of some of the greatest artistic figures of the age.
The Misadventures of Oliver Goldsmith is a fast-paced tragicomedy that promises laughter, tears, songs, music and merriment. It was adapted from Washington Irving’s fond and colourful biography The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, first published in 1840. The show was commissioned by The Goldsmith Festival in Longford and enjoyed a triumphant launch last month in Goldsmith’s old stomping ground of Ballymahon.
This year we celebrated more than 120 years of Bloomsday atThe Bloomsday Festival on 11-16 June 2024!
Bloomsday celebrates Thursday, 16 June 1904, the day immortalised in James Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses. The day is named after Leopold Bloom, one of the novel’s protagonist (the other being Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of Joyce’s 1916 novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Joyce’s literary alter ego). The novel follows Bloom’s life and thoughts — as well as those of Stephen and a host of other characters, real and fictional — from 8AM through to the early hours of the following morning.
Bloomsday celebrations come in many different forms, including readings, performances, walking tours, concerts, and even our famous Bloomsday breakfast (pork kidneys, anyone?). One noticeable feature is that people will dress up like the characters in Edwardian fashion. One of the hallmark dress items found on the streets of Dublin that day is the straw boater hat, a fashionable and iconic summer hat donned by many at the time — including none other than Joyce himself!
The James Joyce Centre has hosted the Bloomsday Festival since 1994. The Centre will host several events throughout the week. In addition, we work with several theatres, museums, libraries, art exhibits, collectives, and other institutions throughout Dublin to bring Joyce’s work to life.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
It’s time to don that boater hat and join us for an afternoon of readings and songs from Ulysses as part of the Bloomsday Festival’s flagship event Readings and Songs at Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, 3pm – 6pm on 16 June 2024.
A long-standing and treasured tradition, this afternoon of songs, readings and performances from Ulysses in the heart of the city is an essential part of the Bloomsday experience.
This year, we have actor and writer Tara Flynn at the helm in Temple Bar, to introduce a fabulously chaotic cast of noted Irish actors, musicians, pundits and everyone in between, who will read extracts from Ulysses. The readings will bring to life Joyce’s immortal words, from his description of Dublin’s “snotgreen sea”, to Molly Bloom’s famous “yes”.
This year’s esteemed readers are acclaimed actors Nora-Jane Noone, Gerry O’Brien, Eimear Keating, Geraldine McAlinden, Rachel Wren, Margaret McAuliffe, Steve Hartland, David Mulcahy, Sinead Murphy, and Mary Murray and writers Conner Habib and Dermot Bolger. The event will also feature the celebrated singer-songwriter David Keenan and the comedic brilliance of Katherine Lynch and Goblins, Goblins, Goblins.
Musicians Bryan Mullen, Brian Gilligan and Camille O’Sullivan will grace the stage, bringing the music that inspired Joyce back to life. The celebrations will culminate with a reading by beloved Irish author Marian Keyes, as she breathes life into Molly Bloom’s legendary “Yes.”
*This is an outdoor event (the Meeting House Square Umbrellas are currently undergoing maintenance) so rain or shine please dress for the weather.
The running order is as follows: 1. Telemachus— Eimear Keating 2. Nestor— Dermot Bolger 3.Proteus— David Keenan 4. Calypso— Katherine Lynch 5. Lotus Eaters — Camille O’Sullivan 6. Hades— Conner Habib 7. Aelous — Margaret Mc Auliffe 8. Lestrygonians— Geraldine McAlinden 9. Scylla and Charybdis — David Mulcahy 10. Wandering Rocks— Brian Gilligan 11. Sirens— Mary Murray 12. Cyclops— Gerry O’Brien 13. Nausicaa— Steve Hartland 14. Oxen of the Sun— Sinead Murphy 15. Circe— Goblins, Goblins, Goblins 16. Eumaeus— Rachel Wren 17. Ithaca— Nora-Jane Noone 18. Penelope— Marian Keyes
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
“Flowers of Sleep”: Bring Paddy Dignan from Sandymount to Glasnevin by Dr. Patrick Callan
The funeral of Paddy Dignam in James Joyce’s Ulysses serves as the pivotal event of the ‘Hades’ episode. Dignam’s funeral cavalcade leaves his home in Sandymount at 11 a.m. on 16 June 1904, taking him across the city to Glasnevin Cemetery. His death and interment allowed Joyce the freedom to consider many of the conventions, rituals and superstitions associated with death and burial in Dublin. Drawing on Ulysses as well as contemporary sources, Dr. Patrick Callan will look at a variety of aspects relating to the domestic and public treatment of the dead body in Dublin, including the practice of the wake, and the traditional offerings of flowers.
Dr. Callan is a Dublin historian and a Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. His book Death in Dublin during the Era of James Joyce’s Ulysses will be published by Routledge.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The James Joyce Centre was proud to present a lunchtime performance by Poems Ago on Thursday, June 13th at 1pm for the Bloomsday Festival. Poems Ago, the Irish-Dutch musical duo Juliana Hahn and Remco Jacobs, compose and perform music to Irish poetry and play original songs. In this concert, they performed guitar and violin music set to James Joyce’s Chamber Music (1906) as well as poetry by W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and contemporary Irish poets. The concert conincides with Yeats’ birthday.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The James Joyce Centre was proud to partner with Vintage Tea Trips for a special Bloomsdayafternoon tea celebrating all things Dublin and James Joyce! Sip on some delicious tea and delicacies while diving into the world of Ulysses and exploring the vibrant city that inspired it on this bus tour on Sunday, 16 June 2024 at 3:30pm.
Whether you are a diehard fan or just curious about this literary masterpiece, this event is perfect for all. Get ready for a fun and enlightening experience that will leave you feeling like a true Dubliner.
Afternoon tea is a much-cherished tea-related ritual from the early 1840s that continued well into the Edwardian era, when Ulysses is set. It was a mini-meal to fill the gap between lunch and dinner and was composed of scones with clotted cream and jam, delicately cut sandwiches, sweets and delicious cakes. In this tour, you may choose from a traditional, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy free or vegan afternoon tea.
Savour all your favourites — freshly made sandwiches, desserts, cakes, and pastries — as your bus travels through downtown Dublin. Pass sights such as Stephen’s Green, Christ Church, Trinity College, St. Stephen’s Green, Wood Quay, O’Connell Street, Phoenix Park, and the grand buildings of Georgian Dublin.
Our tour guide will point out the varoius references of these places in Ulysses. Feel free to dress up in your finest Edwardian garb as you listen to passages of and explanations of Joyce’s classic novel.
There are many Joycean tours of Dublin, but none of them are quite as comfortable and delicious as this one!
Please note:
The tour starts at 3:30pm. The bus is on a strict timetable and can not wait for latecomers. As such, please make arrangements to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled departure.
The tour lasts 70-80 minutes, depending on the traffic.
Bus seating is assigned on a first-booked, first-served basis, beginning with filling the upper deck first and then the lower deck. Guests may be required to share a table. For group seating and other options, please email or call the VVT team 72 hours in advance.
Any allergies, specific dietary requirements or changes to requirements must be confirmed over email or by phone with the VTT team 72 hours in advance. If the allergy can’t be facilitated, the VVT team will be in contact. For a list of allergens, click this link.
The James Joyce Centre was pleased to present a unique experience at the Finnegans Wakeshop during the Bloomsday Festival.
Carol Wade of Art of the Wake and Des Gunning of Joyceborough looked back at ‘FW85,’ the 85th anniversary of the publication of Finnegans Wake and a headsup on plans to mark ‘Mamalujo 101’ in 2025. Des Gunning has been running the Joyceborough Finnegans Wake Reading Group for fifteen years and Carol Wade has been illustrating the Wake for as long. This year, they and others combined forces for the first time to mark the occassion of FW85.
In Finnegans Wakeshop, they reflected on that experience and look ahead to the coming 15 years, which will bring us to FW100. A copiously-illustrated with live performance of the text and plenty of audience participation. A short film, ‘On the Calends of Mars,’ will be screened.
It seems like just another ordinary day for Rosie and her grandad. But as soon as they step outside, they find themselves on a blooming great adventure around Dublin on the 16th of June, 1904!
The James Joyce Centre presented A Blooming Great Day with Úna Woods, children’s event of fun, mischief, and Joyce! Author and illustrator Úna Woods will read from her new children’s book A Blooming Great Day (The O’Brien Press) and lead a drawing workshop on Bloomsday (June 16th) at 2pm. The children will draw scenes from the book and design their own hats! This is a great way for children to be introduced to Joyce and to partake in Dublin’s great literary tradition.
Úna Woods is a children’s book illustrator and author who lives in Dublin with her husband and two children and their ginger cat. Her previous books include Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire? and A Spooktacular Place to Be, both published by The O’Brien Press. Úna loves working with bright colours and patterns. She also loves reading and running.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Happenings Irelandin partnership with the James Joyce Centre was proud to present Breathe and Bloom, a truly unique Bloomsday celebration of health, wellness, and yoga (yes, really!) on Sunday, June 16th at 11am in Brighton Square.
James Joyce was born in 1882 at 41 Brighton Square. What better way to celebrate Bloomsday than by gathering where it all began! Breathe and Bloom is a unique blend of traditional Bloomsday celebrations and wellness exercises.
Ulysses is not often thought about in terms of health and fitness but the novel provides a glimpse into the burgeoning wellness movement that would develop extensively in the 20th century. Leopold Bloom is conscious of his body and the need to maintain it through exercise and diet, even if he is not so vigilant in doing so! “Got up wrong side of the bed,” he thinks to himself. “Must begin again those Sandow’s exercises.” His wife, Molly, also has this on her mind: “I must do a few breathing exercises[.] I wonder is that antifat any good might overdo it.” The event will show this often-overlooked facet of Joyce’s work by combining a class by Yoga in the Park with a talk about health and fitness in Joyce’s work as well as old-fashioned readings and songs!
The event will start with Yoga in the Park’s regularly-scheduled class with Jo Collins from 11am to 12pm. It will then be followed by a half-hour talk about fitness, wellness and Joyce by Dr. Conor Heffernan, Lecturer in Sport Sociology at Ulster University. This talk will feature demonstrations of gentle stretching, dumbbell raising and deep breathing by Jo Collins. Audience participation is encouraged but not mandatory. After the talk, the park will host music and readings of Ulysses. The audience is welcome to bring food and drink to make a nice picnic!
Schedule: 11-12: Happenings Yoga’s Yoga in the Park class with Jo Collins. 12-12:30: Talk and yoga demonstration by Dr. Conor Heffernan and Jo Collins about fitness, mindfullness, and yoga in Ulysses. 12:30-1:30: Music and readings.
Many thanks to the residents of Brighton Square for hosting the event.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and
On Tuesday, June 11th at 6pm the formal launch of this year’s Bloomsday Festival took place. The Bloomsday Festival was in full-swing this year with close to one-hundred separate events on June 11th-16th throughout Dublin. Our reception featured talks and readings (and some wine!) and celebrated another year of Bloomsday celebrations. We were joined by British artist Jo Hamill as she introduced our new art exhibition Gutter Words. French artist Rémi Rousseau was also on hand as he introduced his new art exhibition Ulysses: Illustrations. Join festival goers around Dublin and the world as we kick off this extraordinary time of the year!
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
On Bloomsday, Sunday June 16th at 12pm The James Joyce Centre hosted some ‘midday mumming madness’ as the extraordinary talent of the Fingal Mummers explored 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.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
“Smareglia (who lives beside me) is held by many to be the most original of the living Italian musicians.” James Joyce, 1911
The James Joyce Centre was pleased to host James Joyce and Antonio Smargelia, a special Bloomsday Festival concert event that illustrates the connection between James Joyce, Antonio Smareglia, Trieste, and Pula, on June 15th at 7pm. The concert features performances of music excerpts from operas by Smareglia, the Italian-Croatian composer who was a friend and neighbour of Joyce while they both lived in Trieste.
Maltese pianist Charlene Farrugia-Božac and Croatian soprano Sofija Cingula will bring to life some of the music from operas that Joyce would have heard and admired at the time, from Smareglia’s student work Caccia lontana and Nozze Istriane (which Joyce heard in Trieste in 1908) to fragments from Oceana, Smareglia’s most novel work of music theatre known as teatro di poesia.
The event will include presentations by Croatian scholar Dr. Vito Paoletić (University of Pula) about Joyce’s time in Pula, as well as the city’s links to and celebrations of Bloomsday. Introduction about the musician Antonio Smareglia and his connection to James Joyce will be given by Dr. Juliana Licinic van Walstijn (Queen’s University Belfast), President of the Association Smaregliana.
The concert will be followed by a wine reception provided generously by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Dublin.
The concert is presented by Association Smaregliana in cooperation with the University of Pula and the James Joyce Centre and sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Dublin.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
On June 15th at 1pm The James Joyce Centre was pleased to host The Other Mrs Joyce on the Day Before Bloomsday. Award-winning novelist Mary Morrissy will talk about and reads from Penelope Unbound(Banshee Press), her recently published counterfactual novel about Nora Barnacle. In it, she splits the Joyces up and gives Nora a wholly different life without him; she also plays matchmaker for Joyce and finds him a new wife. This event is about her.
On their arrival in Trieste in 1904, James Joyce left Norah Barnacle outside a railway station while he went to scare up money. He got embroiled in a fight with a couple of sailors and was locked up for his troubles. A penniless Norah was left alone for almost an entire day and night sitting on their suitcases at the station in a city where she knew no one and where she didn’t speak the language. In real life, Norah waited for him. This novel asks – what if she hadn’t? In Penelope Unbound, one of our greatest living novelists weaves a spellbinding speculative history. By unhooking Norah from her famous husband, Morrissy gives her a compelling new voice, with heartbreak and humanity all her own. Sensual, inventive and uproariously funny, Penelope Unbound reimagines a Joycean heroine for the 21st century.
Praise for Penelope Unbound:
“A novel of great brilliance and inventiveness, a remarkably – and mysteriously – moving story of what might have been. . . a stylistic tour de force that Joyce himself would surely have admired.” – John Banville, The Observer
“Given Nora’s iconic status, I’d say it took considerable courage and chutzpah to carry this novel off.” – Carlo Gebler, Irish Independent
“(a) compellingly reimagined Norah, who is, like the novel itself, richly compelling and startlingly alive” – Kevin Power, author of White City
Mary Morrissy is the author of four novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender, The Rising of Bella Casey and most recently, Penelope Unbound. She has also published two collections of stories, A Lazy Eye and Prosperity Drive. Her work has won her the Hennessy Prize and a Lannan Foundation Award. A member of Aosdána, she is a journalist, teacher of creative writing and a literary mentor. She blogs at https://marymorrissy.com and curates a website dedicated to the work of Dublin painter, Una Watters: https://unawattersartist.com.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Images: Berenice Abbot, Portraits of Sylvia Beach, James Joyce, Lucia Joyce, and Nora Joyce, 1926-27, courtesy Clark Art Institute. Centre photgraph by Charles Norton, courtesy of A.G. Norton.
On June 14th at 6:30pm The James Joyce Centre was please to present Berenice Abbot, Joyce and the Creative Women, a personal Bloomsday Festival presentation on Berenice Abbott, a pioneering 20th-century photographer who took some of the most iconic portraits of Joyce and his family, and the community of creative, queer women who supported his career.
A chance discovery of a box of family photos in a basement in New Jersey led one woman to uncover Abbott’s seldom told artistic legacy. Follow storyteller, archivist, and social activist A.G. Norton on her personal journey through Abbott’s private archive revealing: letters written by Lucia Joyce to Berenice, personal commentary made by Berenice about her multiple photography sessions with the beloved author, and the intersections between the publication of Ulysses and the community of queer women who supported it.
Throughout the 1920s, Berenice Abbott’s life crisscrossed between Greenwich Village and Paris where, in addition to the Joyce family, she photographed and befriended fellow queer women including Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, Djuna Barnes, Jannett Flanner, and Sylvia Beach. Hear of how their friendships and artistic endeavors all entwined with one another and the lessons and blessings their legacies leave behind.
Delighted to be joining the Bloomsday Festival from Connecticut, Norton will share her research into Abbott’s fascinating life which all started with the discovery of photos taken by her late grandfather and went onto interviews with both of Abbott’s biographers and personal friends, Julia Van Hafften and Hank O’Neal.
A.G. Norton has over 15 years experience in London as a social worker and children’s rights activist where she used her voice to publicly advocate for underserved, marginalized communities.
Returning to New York in 2018 she discovered her family’s personal connection and photographs of photographer Berenice Abbott and has spent the last three years gathering research into her remarkable life. Norton has written several performance pieces based on the photographic legacies she inherited and has toured them at the Brighton, Camden, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Norton was the 2023 recipient of the Brighton Pride Award to support queer storytelling.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
The James Joyce Centre was proud to sponsor Joycenights, a literary festival at the James Joyce Tower & Museum in Sandycove from the 9th to the 14th of September 2023.
In September 1904, James Joyce spent six nights in the Sandycove Martello Tower, where he would later set the opening episode of Ulysses. This festival commemorated his short but significant residency with readings, concerts, and a podcast.