16‭ ‬June‭ ‬1929:‭ ‬'Bloomsday' was first celebrated on this day. In one of the earliest Bloomsday celebrations,‭ ‬Sylvia Beach,‭ ‬publisher of James Joyce's classic novel Ulysses organised a Ulysses lunch with her partner Adrienne Monnier in France in June‭ ‬1929.‭

The first Bloomsday celebrated in Ireland was in‭ ‬1954,‭ ‬the fiftieth anniversary of the first Bloomsday.‭ ‬The eccentric writers Patrick Kavanagh and Flann O’Brien visited locations such as the Martello Tower at Sandycove,‭ ‬Davy Byrne’s pub,‭ ‬and‭ ‬7‭ ‬Eccles Street where the fictional Leopold Bloom lived with his wife Molly.‭ ‬They spent part of their tour reading extracts from Ulysses and drinking a great deal as they went along‭!

"It wasn't until‭ ‬1954,‭ ‬its‭ ‬50th anniversary,‭ ‬that John Ryan,‭ ‬restaurant owner and publisher of the literary periodical Envoy,‭ ‬and his literary friends,‭ ‬novelist Brian O'Nolan and poets Patrick Kavanagh and Anthony Cronin,‭ ‬resurrected Bloomsday in Ireland.‭ ‬There are photos at the National Library in Dublin…of their pilgrimage in two horse-cabs to various locations in Ulysses and several pubs.‭"

Fritzi Horstman

Bloomsday celebrates the day on which the narrative of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses takes place,‭ ‬16‭ ‬June‭ ‬1904,‭ ‬the day on which it is believed that Joyce first went out with his future wife,‭ ‬Nora Barnacle.‭ ‬The day is named after Leopold Bloom,‭ ‬the central character in Ulysses.‭ ‬The novel follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus (his alter ego)along with a host of other characters‭ – ‬real and fictional‭ – ‬from‭ ‬8‭ ‬am on‭ ‬16‭ ‬June through to the early hours of the following morning. 

An Extract:

As he set foot on O'Connell bridge a puffball of smoke plumed up from the parapet.‭ ‬Brewery barge with export stout.‭ ‬England.‭ ‬Sea air sours it,‭ ‬I heard.‭ ‬Be interesting some day get a pass through Hancock to see the brewery.‭ ‬Regular world in itself.‭ ‬Vats of porter,‭ ‬wonderful.‭ ‬Rats get in too.‭ ‬Drink themselves bloated as big as a collie floating.‭ ‬Dead drunk on the porter.‭ ‬Drink till they puke again like christians.‭ ‬Imagine drinking that‭! ‬Rats:‭ ‬vats.‭ ‬Well of course if we knew all the things.

Episode‭ ‬8‭ – ‘‬Lestrygonians‭’