Bloom Day

A sign in DublinThursday, June 16, 1904, entered the history of literature as Bloomsday. On this day, Ulysses takes place. It was June 16, 1904 that Joyce and Nora Barnackle, who worked as a maid at the Finn’s Hotel, first met her on Nassau Street. 1904 was the year Joyce broke up with his homeland. He moved to the European continent, carrying Ireland not yet in manuscripts, but in his heart. From now on, everything he wrote will be one big memory.

Every year on June 16, Ulysses fans around the world celebrate Bloomsday. Many fans of "Ulysses" come to Ireland to walk the route of the novel's heroes - Bloom and Stephen, making their journey through Dublin at Bloomsday.

Although Bloomsday's 100th anniversary in 2004 was celebrated all over the world, including in Ireland, there were times when Joyce's name was not respected in his homeland. Joyce's Ulysses was banned from entering Ireland until the '60s, but some daredevils managed to smuggle the book into the country.

But even before the official appearance of Ulysses in Ireland, in 1954, Bloomsday was celebrated for the first time in a very narrow circle in Dublin. Then five men, among them writers and a man who called himself Joyce's cousin, went on a journey from Martello Tower to the Davy Byrne pub. Bloomsday was not celebrated in Dublin until 1982.

On June 16, 1962, the James Joyce Museum was inaugurated in the Martello Tower, the very place where Ulysses begins.

It wasn’t until 1982, the centenary of James Joyce’s birth, that Bloomsday was officially celebrated in Dublin, after which the scale of Bloomsday celebrations began to increase every year.

Now on the streets of Dublin you can find a monument to Joyce and signs indicating that it was in this place that the paths of the main characters of “Ulysses” passed.

Since 2004, by the decision of the society "Petersburg-Ireland", the holiday is celebrated in St. Petersburg.