Bloomsday Festival reveals centenary programme

Dublin’s Bloomsday 2022 will celebrate the centenary of James Joyce’s revered masterpiece Ulysses with a thrilling programme of events

Dublin, Ireland: Running from 11 – 16 June, the Bloomsday Festival is set to be the highlight of the year-long and international celebration of one of the most iconic works of English literature.
 
James Joyce’s Ulysses follows the footsteps of Leopold Bloom around Dublin on Thursday 16 June 1904. For almost 70 years the Bloomsday Festival, named after the lead character, has celebrated the genius of Joyce and the wit and character of the people of Dublin.   
 
The city’s 2022 festival features a wide range of events spanning readings, musical concerts, tours, theatre, talks, art, and food and drink events.
 
This year’s highlights include the staging of Joyce’s Dubliners in the Smock Alley Theatre (9 – 24 June) and a reading of a new play, The United States v. Ulysses (16 – 17 June), the true story of one of the great literary trials of the twentieth century.
 
Bloominaushwitz will be performed from 14 –18 June at the New Theatre. It’s a flamboyant, playful investigation of identity and belonging, which sees Bloom escape from the boundaries of the novel and set off to explore his Jewish heritage.
 
There will also be the world premiere of a one-woman show celebrating the life of Joyce’s wife Nora, while the world premiere of a suite for guitar and strings composed by multi-award nominated musician Joe Chester will pay tribute to Joyce’s daughter Lucia, a talented but troubled dancer and illustrator.
 
Among the tours on offer will be ‘To Heaven by Water: Exploring the Royal Canal through Ulysses’. This walking tour along Dublin’s beautiful Royal Canal, guided by three performers, will bring to life some of the key episodes in Joyce’s epic tale.
 
The Bloomsday Film Festival will run alongside the main events, and it will feature a programme of shorts that illustrate how Joyce’s style is still influencing Irish and world cinema today.
 
Beyond the programmed events, there will be the usual madcap and impromptu readings of Ulysses in pubs, cafes and even on the streets of the city, while Joyce fans will take the opportunity to dress up in Edwardian garb and visit some of the places mentioned in the novel. These include the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove (now a Joyce museum), Davy Byrnes’ pub and Sweny’s Pharmacy.
 
The Bloomsday Festival is part of Dublin’s extensive celebration of the Ulysses’ 100^th anniversary.
 
The Museum of Literature Ireland, branded MoLI in homage to Molly Bloom, Joyce’s heroine in Ulysses, is hosting a series of events throughout the year, including Ulysses 2.2 which is building an extraordinary collection of modern-day artworks inspired by Joyce’s novel.
 
And among the many other events, there is a ‘Painting Ulysses’ exhibition, based on the 18 episodes of the novel, at the James Joyce Centre. The works, by Aidan Hickey, will hang at the centre until the end of June.