Bloomsday June 16th 2026

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Bloomsday is an annual celebration on June 16th honouring James Joyce and his novel, Ulysses, commemorating the day the book's events take place. Bloomsday is named after Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce's 1922 novel which chronicles a single day in Dublin on 16 June, 1904 when Joyce met Nora Barnacle, his future wife, and enjoyed his first sexual relations with her. The first mention of such a celebration is found in a letter, written by Joyce, to a Miss Weaver on 27 June 1924, which  refers to "a group of people who observe what they call Bloom's Day --16 June."  What became known as Bloomsday seems to have been celebrated ever since and not only in Dublin, but, following the emigre paths of the wandering Irish as far afield as the U.S. and Australia.

The Ulysses route in Dublin

The 50^th anniversary in 1954 celebrated the occasion with a day-long pilgrimage along the Ulysses route, organized by John Ryan, an art critic, artist and founder of the Envoy magazine, together with Brian O’Nolan. They were joined by Patrick Kavanagh, Antony Cronin, Tom Joyce, (James’ cousin to represent the family interest), and A.J. Leventhal, a lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin. Ryan had engaged two horse-drawn cabs, like the old-fashioned models in which Bloom and his friends had driven to Paddy Dignam’s funeral in Ulysses. Each member of the group was assigned roles from the novel. Cronin was Stephen Dedalus; O’Nolan represented Simon Dedalus, Stephen’s father; Ryan was the journalist, Martin Cunningham; and Leventhal, who was Jewish, filled the role of Leopold Bloom. They planned to drive around Dublin throughout the day, starting at the Martello Tower at Sandycove [where the novel begins], visiting, in turn, the scenes portrayed in the novel, ending, at night, in what had once been the brothel area of the city called Nighttown by Joyce. This 1954 literary pilgrimage, important though it was,  had to be abandoned halfway through at the Bailey Pub because of drunken quarrelling among group members. Ryan, the pilgrimage organiser, filmed it unofficially so that there is a record of Bloomsday 1954. He happened to own the Bailey Pub by 1954, and, in 1967, he installed the door to 7 Eccles Street [Leopold Bloom’s front door in the novel] which he had been able to buy at auction, saving it from demolition. 

Bloomsday universal.

 The festival itself, organized by the James Joyce Centre on behalf of the city of Dublin, involved, and continues to involve, a range of cultural activities including Ulysses readings, community runs and dramatisations, pub crawls and other Joycean events. Enthusiasts often dress up as characters from the book, in Edwardian costumes  to celebrate as they retrace Bloom’s route around Dublin via landmarks such as Davy Byrne’s pub. Hard-core devotees have even been known to hold marathon readings of the entire novel, some lasting up to 36 hours. The James Joyce Tower and Museum at Sandycove also hosts many free activities around Bloomsday including musical events, tours of the iconic tower and public readings from Joyce’s masterpiece. On Bloomsday 1982, the centenary of Joyce’s birth, RTE, the Irish State broadcaster, transmitted a continuous 30-hour dramatic performance of the entire Ulysses text on radio.   

Bloomsday devotees in costume and in action!

 A five-month long festival, Rejoyce Dublin 2004, took place in Dublin between 1st April and 31st August 2004. On the Sunday before the hundredth anniversary of the fictional events described, 10,000 Dubliners were treated to an open air, free breakfast of sausages, bacon rashers, toast, beans and black pudding plus white pudding. Joyce enthusiasts in Dublin never do things by halves!  But more Joycean celebration excesses were to come although the 2006 Bloomsday festivities had to be cancelled when its normal day of remembrance coincided with the funeral of Charles Haughey, three times Taoiseach of Ireland. Senator and Joycean scholar, David Norris was not impressed with the cancellation. He said, "He, (Haughey) was a great Joycean. ....  You can't cancel Bloomsday! You can't cancel Sunday. Perhaps you

Hats in the air on Bloomsday!

won't go to Church but it's still Sunday. And in Dublin, the 16th of June is Bloomsday." 

Unusual award in the literary world.
A bronze plaque awarded for being an
outstanding example of an authentic Dublin pub
as described in Ulysses.
The James Joyce Pub Award.

Bloomsday run, Spokane.

Possibly the youngest and smartest
Bloomsday partipant.

Every year, hundreds of Dubliners dress up as Bloom characters though they may never have read Ulysses nor intend to. But their costumed participation suggests a willingness, even an enthusiasm, to be part of the whole event. It is impossible to imagine any other modern literary masterpiece having such a striking effect on the life of a city, echoed globally                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Washington. 2004.

 

James Joyce whose character, Leopold Bloom,
 from his novel Ulysses, has fond admirers
throughout the English-speaking world.