The 16th of June will see strange goings-on in Dublin every year - mostly elderly gentlemen and ladies in decidedly old-fashioned garb tramping through town. Reciting literature. These are people celebrating Bloomsday. The day on which James Joyce had his fictional character Leopold Bloom criss-crossing Dublin in "Ulysses".
How Bloomsday Originated
When writing his massive "Ulysses", Joyce felt he had to decide on a specific date - he chose June 16th, 1904. This was not a random choice. On this very day James Joyce first "walked out" with Nora Barnacle.
Lesser men would have simply bought some flowers ...
Celebrations Somehow Mis-Timed?
In 1954 poets Patrick Kavanagh and Anthony Cronin together with some friends decided to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloomsday by a pilgrimage to the Martello Tower in Sandycove. Here "Ulysses" starts - and a tradition was started that year. Every year Joyce fans and scholars remember Leopold Bloom and "Ulysses" - though many may not even have read the book. The centenary of Bloomsday in 2004 saw a Dublin-wide celeration of epic proportions.
Curiously the Bloomsday anniversary was disputed by a few spoil-sports. They pointed out that "Ulysses" hadn't been writen before 1914 and that thus June 16th 2004 was the centenary of just another day, Bloomsday being at least ten years younger.
Joyceans in turn point out that Bloomsday is the celebration of a fictional day which just happens to coincide with a real date. Not too much of a stretch in a country where the anniversary of the Easter Rising became a movable feast ...
What is the Storyline of "Ulysses"?
Widely regarded as the most important novel of the 20th century, "Ulysses" describes nothing more (or less) than a day in the life of Leopold Bloom. The Jewish newspaper advertisement canvasser, a marginalized citizen of Victorian Dublin. Being both passive and pacifist Bloom is a parody of Homer's hero Ulysses. And his personal odyssey takes him through Dublin.
The physical part of Bloom's journey runs from the Martello Tower in Sandycove back to his home in Eccles Street. The descriptions of Dublin in 1904 are as detailed as any historian could wish for. The psychological part is, however, much more important. It explores the relationship between Bloom, his wife Molly and Stephen Dedalus. But it also extends to political and social commentary.
The actual contents of "Ulysses" is, however, not regarded as being as important as the style of writing. Joyce mixes styles, uses the (then) innovative technique of "stream of consciousness" and manages to include pastiches of nearly every style in English literary history. The narrative technique(s) have been praised ever since, as have the novel's irony, its comic escapades and the "linguistic excess" it contains.
By the way - acclaim was not global and excess was not only seen in linguistic terms. "Ulysses" was banned for obscenity in the USA and the United Kingdom until 1933!
How is Bloomsday Celebrated in Dublin?
If you arrive in Dublin around mid-June you will not be able to eat a Denny's sausage without being reminded of its great literary heritage (a butcher in "Ulysses" happens to sell these sausages). And you will be able to join in a number of Joyce-related events. It sometimes may seem as if any Joycean worth his or her salt is in Dublin for Bloomsday.
The traditional way to celebrate the genius of "Ulysses" is a rather physical one - fans gather at Sandycove's Martello Tower (now a Joyce museum) and retrace Blooms steps as far as still possible. Given that Dublin has been changed by the Easter Rising of 1916 as well as some atrocities committed by town planners and changes due to the "Celtic Tiger" economy this is not always easy. But possible and (in the right, congenial company) fun.
Though you might not get a gorgonzola sandwich in Davy Byrne's today and may want to refrain from re-enacting Bloom's sexual escapades.
If you want to organize your own Bloomsday celebration and tour you will be pleased to notice that several sites mentioned in "Ulysses" have been marked by plaques. Even the modern Mater Private Hospital proudly acknowledges that Bloom once lived here!
