June 16 - Bloomsday in Ireland

Posted on June 16, 2021

Key Points

This is an update of my post published on June 16, 2010:

Bloomsday celebrates the life and the work of Irish writer James Joyce. The holiday is mostly celebrated by fans of Joyce’s novel Ulysses – and since all of the events in the novel took place in Dublin on June 16, 1904, and since the main character is named Leopold Bloom – well, Bloomsday on June 16 seems perfectly fitting!

Some fans even read the entire novel aloud—and that can take more than a day! Up to 36 hours!

Ulysses is more than 700 pages long – which is
really long considering that it describes events that
occur in the space of a single day!

Bloomsday was first mentioned in writing in 1924, although it is certainly possible that it was celebrated the year before that. Ulysses was first published in 1922.

In 1954, which is considered the 50th anniversary of the fictional events of the book, several literature fans reenacted the novel, assigning character roles to each participant, traveling to the spots where the characters went, etc.

In 2004, before the 100th anniversary of the fictional events of the book, 10,000 people in Dublin were served a free full Irish breakfast: sausages, rashers, toast, beans, and black and white puddings.

Note that the Bloomsday participant above is dressed to
look like James Joyce (below).

In general (and when not locked down because of a deadly pandemic), Bloomsday is celebrated in Dublin by Ulysses readings and dramatizations, pub crawls, tours, concerts, and other events. Some folks dress up in Edwardian costumes.

Another city that celebrates Bloomsday is Szombathely, Hungary. Why there? you ask. Well, this is the (fictional) birthplace of (fictional) Leopold’ Bloom’s (fictional) father Virác Rudolf.

Of course, fans of Joyce or of Irish culture in general often celebrate Bloomsday wherever they live – in the U.S., in Italy, in New Zealand, on and on…

In 2020, because of COVID-19, articles were written about Bloomsday becoming a Zoomsday! Hopefully a lot of cities have enough vaccinated people to celebrate in-person this year.