Bloomsday in Dublin was quite the lively affair this year, second only in exuberance to the 91 affirmations found in Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from the famous James Joyce novel, Ulysses. This is a fact commonly known among literary academics who revel in Joycean text.
Indeed, one couldn’t walk far around the city without hearing readings from Ulysses, particularly in Meeting House Square in Temple Bar. It was there that celebrated author Marian Keyes took to the stage to perform.
Nonetheless, fans visiting the James Joyce Centre found that merchandise bearing “Stately Plump Buck Mulligan” – a phrase from Ulysses – was sold out by midday, whereas T-shirts printed with “And yes I said yes I will yes”, seemingly less suitable for night club attire, were readily available in various sizes.
Interestingly, this year’s Bloomsday lacked the usual prominent presence of scholars in the “Emerald City” due to the Joyce Symposium, fondly referred to as ‘the Joycean Olympics’, being held in Glasgow. Hence, the Dublin event had a more community-focussed feel, with attendees participating, often in period costume, for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Among these committed fans were Raychel O’Connell and Johan Slattery, both seen in period attire at the James Joyce Centre. O’Connell became immersed in Ulysses through a book club. Unbeknownst to her then-fiancé Johan, his exposure to the text via her would eventually lead to him quoting the book in his marriage proposal. Thankfully, O’Connell responded in Joycean style with a “Yes (I will yes)”, and their union has since yielded a son, six-month-old Tadhg Jack Ulysses, who also sported Edwardian attire for the occasion.
The day’s festivities began with Bloomsday breakfasts at Belvedere College costing €50, a college Joyce himself had attended when his father could no longer manage the fees for Clongowes Wood.
Around two hundred individuals were present in two separate sessions. Among the attendees were the embattled leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, accompanied by her mother, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe.
Two years prior, when Ulysses celebrated its hundred years, Donohoe, being a dedicated admirer of Joyce, gave each of his Eurogroup finance minister colleagues a copy of the book in their respective languages. Speaking in Belvedere, Donohoe stated that he utilises the text of Joyce as a moral compass. He referred to Leopold Bloom, an Irish-born despised outsider, in his refusal of “force, hate, history, all that” and his promotion of “affection…the antithesis of hatred” as the true essence of existence.
Bloom’s character also plays the role of a devoted (and grieving) parent making him an apt subject for reflections associated with Father’s Day, which took place on the same day, June 16th, that year.
Later on Bloomsday, which occurred on a Sunday, a mass was held. In an event termed “Joyce and the Jesuits”, avid lovers of Joyce took control of the pulpit in the neighbouring St. Francis Xavier’s Church. The first excerpt was from the Book of James. However, instead of Ulysses the source was A Portrait of the Artist, with actor Gerry McArdle mimicking Fr Arnall’s sermon on hell.
During the Bloomsday party at Áras an Úachtaráin, President Michael D Higgins introduced a serious topic by urging for the safeguarding of librarians against coercion by “extreme right-wing groups”. He stated that the security of libraries and their staff should be a collective responsibility to avoid being victims of regressive and uninformed censorship, and by keeping an extensive selection of literature that reflects the richness and diversity of our current social environment.