Bloomsday

The spirit of Bloonsday is pretty infectious! Paddy handily improvised an eyepatch and was an instant James Joyce after breakfast.

I took the dart into town then the lúas over to meet Phyllis at St Mary’s Abbey for a tour. The tour, or lecture really, in the chapter house space was excellent. The abbey was built in 1139 by the Cistercian order and was one of the most important monasteries in medieval Ireland. Read more here! https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/st-marys-abbey-chapter-house/. The site is mentioned in the wandering rocks chapter of Ulysses, in which Dubliners make their way across the city going about their business. The tour guide was really excellent, so interesting and entertaining and with a beautiful singing voice.

We then had a bite to eat at a cafe that had been recommended to Phyllis when she’d stopped to ask someone for directions, very good lunch! Fortified, we then headed to the James Joyce center on north great George’s street.

The center was really buzzing. We wandered around the building which included the door of number 7, Eccles Street, where Leopold and Molly Bloom lived.

They also have the full set of boxes by Suzanne Freeman that depict each chapter of Ulysses. We saw these at the writers museum a few years ago and I was equally taken then!

We met a family from Washington DC who were here on a joint Joyce / genealogy tour. By coincidence the woman we talked to was also named Phyllis! Then there was a commotion outside and we went out to find that performers had arrived, the Wrenboys. They performed and sang and got us all to dance in the street, which Phyllis and I did and we are hoping makes it onto the news!

We then headed to the customs house for a reading by the balloonatics. They read and performed the Eumaeus chapter, near the site of the cabman’s shed. They were really good.

We then walked over to Davy Byrnes to enjoy the atmosphere there, perhaps the most popular spot in Dublin on Bloomsday. We got a table inside (a feat any day of the year!) – everyone was dressed up there.

The special Bloomsday menu had Gorgonzola sandwiches, which is what Leopold bloom orders there for lunch. He also ordered a glass of burgundy. I had the sandwich with a pint of Guinness zero.