Bloomsday in Dublin – a celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses

Hands up how many people have read James Joyce’s entire 265,000-word masterpiece, Ulysses? Okay, so you haven't yet, but you can still immerse yourself in Joyce’s Dublin for Bloomsday.

FAST FACTS:
- Ulysses was set over one day in Dublin – Thursday, June 16th 1904.
- It’s called Bloomsday because James Joyce’s character was called Leopold Bloom - hence, Bloomsday.
- Ulysses contains 265,000+ words
- Punctuation wasn’t big in Ulysses. Its final 24,048 words contained just two periods and one comma!
- It was banned in the US for being ‘obscene’ until 1934
- Joyce’s last words were: “Does nobody understand?”

There are plenty of places mentioned in Ulysses that you can visit, including:
– James Joyce Tower in Sandycove
– Sandymount Strand
– Duke Street’s Davy Byrne’s (Leopold ate a gorgonzola sandwich with a glass of burgundy here. You can, too!) and The Bailey.
– Sweny’s Chemist, Lincoln Place: no longer a dispensary, it’s now a quirky literary meeting place
– The National Library: a favourite hangout for Joyce…and location for the Scylla and Charybdis episode
– And The James Joyce Centre on Parnell Street

For more information about Bloomsday, visit https://www.ireland.com/what-is-available/literary-ireland/articles/bloomsday-in-dublin