Bookish breaks: Get inspired with these literary destinations, from Castletownshend to the French Riviera
To celebrate Bloomsday on June 16th, we explore spots that inspired famous writers to create their classics
Bloomsday
Read more about Bloomsday, the annual June 16th commemorations of James Joyce set on the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place in 1904.
James Joyce: ‘For a boy of his age in a Dublin day school, he seems to have had considerable sexual experience’
In a Word ... Precocious
President Higgins has ‘no intention’ of remaining silent while democracy ‘under threat’
Michael D Higgins uses last Bloomsday speech in office to denounce treatment of people in Gaza and decry ‘dangerous authoritarianism’ in US
Bloomsday was a sporadic, boozy and ill-mannered affair before becoming an annual event in 1994
In 1954 Flann O’Brien, Patrick Kavanagh and Anthony Cronin embarked on a drunken pilgrimage including public urination on Sandymount Strand
Reading Ulysses: Splendid literature that can suck the life out of you and your family
Six pages of James Joyce’s masterpiece every night for five months, that shouldn’t be too hard. Right?
Killiney WhatsApp chats ablaze again with a new debate about goats
Plus Joe Biden causes concern, who runs Ireland and did Leopold Bloom shoot JFK?
Event guide: Pulp, Beyond the Pale, Cork Midsummer and other best things to do in Ireland this week
Ireland event guide for the week June 7th–13th, 2025: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way
‘Free money, free love in a free lay state’: Leopold Bloom’s politics
Bloom and his creator James Joyce were finely attuned to Irish ideological currents of their day
In Pictures: Bloomsday 2024
Performances and fun across Dublin for commemoration of the 120th year since the day on which James Joyce’s Ulysses is set
Bloomsday: Minister and Sinn Féin leader among Dubs lining out for ‘Joycean Olympics’
Among €25 T-shirts for sale at James Joyce Centre, those reading ‘Stately Plump Buck Mulligan’ sold out quickly
Protecting libraries from far-right attacks not just a job for gardaí, says President
Michael D Higgins tells Bloomsday gathering those who intimidate library staff and tear up books ‘must be called out’
‘Come back to me when you have an idea nobody has ever attempted before’
My five-year-old and I are heading home to Hungary after a weekend visiting family in Lucan. Our bag is full of chocolate and paints
In a Word....Rejoice
Imagine the attention were Ireland to have a public holiday celebrating a fictional character
Plan your Bloomsday weekend: What’s on and will I have to eat pork kidneys?
Joycean events to mark the 120th anniversary of Leopold Bloom’s many steps across Dublin are being held across the capital and beyond
Celebrating James Joyce and those fearful Jesuits
Rite & Reason: Joyce knew far more about Catholic dogma than many of his detractors
Yes to Molly Bloomsday weekend: Four days of women-led spectacle in Derry and Donegal
The Ulysses European Odyssey stretches across 18 European cities that have produced artistic responses to the novel
Locals ‘bring Ulysses to life’ in Bloomsday celebrations under shadow of Martello tower
Hundreds of James Joyce enthusiasts flock to Sandycove and surrounds for readings, song and more
Why Ireland should declare Bloomsday a public holiday to honour its most famous Jew
In a Word: Two public holidays so close together? That’s nothing: the French had five last month
James Joyce and the Irish Revolution: Richly layered, erudite chapters that repay close reading
The Easter Rising is seen as a catalyst for global processes of decolonisation, in the same way as Joyce is a catalyst for literary modernism
Welcome to summer in Dublin, with dereliction, degradation and dirt on the streets
Dereliction, dirt and degradation are the predominant features of summer in much of the city
Bloomsday, Dalkey Book Festival, Body & Soul, Borris, Sea Sessions, Beyond the Pale and more: here’s what you need to know
A blizzard of festivals hits this weekend. From stage times to getting there, here’s a lot of what you need to know if you’re heading to these events
Resting in peace – Frank McNally on James Joyce and a real-life and fictional Paddy Dignam
A poignant coincidence
Bloomsday: Skeleton onesies, period dress and at least 88 full Joycean breakfasts
Gravediggers Bar deputised for Barney Kiernan’s as backdrop for Bloomsday performance of Cyclops episode
How Paris helped shape James Joyce
Paris gave Joyce a lens through which to see his native city as a modern urban environment
We owe James Joyce a final resting place in Dublin
Nora Barnacle wanted him repatriated but was refused. We must right this wrong
This Bloomsday, why not rub a bit of sacred against a spot of profane?
Like every Dubliner, in the end we are all bit players in short chapters within Joyce’s universe
Why was James Joyce’s daughter Lucia written out of history?
Annabel Abbs, author of The Joyce Girl, asks why was Lucia Joyce, a beautiful woman and talented dancer, left to languish by her family for 50 years in an English asylum?
Blazes Boylan, Skin-the-Goat and Frederick Sweny: the real people of Ulysses
James Joyce populated his chronicle of a day in Dublin with hundreds of people, famous and ordinary, Irish and foreign, contemporary and historical. Knowing who they were throws light on many passages of Joyce’s masterpiece
Bloomsday: If you haven’t read Ulysses yet, start here
Eileen Battersby details five good reasons to dive into a truly great work of fiction
Bloomsday 1982: when Jorge Luis Borges and Anthony Burgess came to pay homage
Anthony Cronin, begetter of the first Bloomsday celebration in 1954, organised one of Dublin’s greatest literary events to mark the centenary of James Joyce’s birth in 1982
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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