Dublin will be the place to be next year as the city celebrates its literary heroes and marks milestone anniversaries of two of the most seminal works in English literature.
Literary events and celebrations will be taking place all around the globe to mark the original 2 February 1922 publication of James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses – but it will be in the author’s home city of Dublin where the centenary will resonate most.
The Irish capital will be alive in 2022 with a programme of events, readings, food and walking tours, exhibitions, music, theatre and more, as Dubliners celebrate the novel that elevated Joyce into the pantheon of the greatest writers of all time.
Joyce himself was very superstitious about 2 February, not least because the first publication date of his great novel coincided with his 40th birthday.
On 2 February 2022 Dublin’s attractions will launch their programmes to celebrate the year ahead, with events taking place right up to 16 June – the single day during which all the action in Ulysses takes place, and which later became known internationally as ‘Bloomsday’ in honour of its central character Leopold Bloom.
Interestingly, Bloomsday falls on a Thursday in 2022 – in Ulysses, the action takes place on Thursday 16 June, 1904.
Among the literary attractions in Dublin marking the centenary will be the Museum of Literature Ireland, branded MoLI in homage to Molly Bloom, Joyce’s heroine in Ulysses, and home to ‘Copy No. 1’ of the novel.
The museum will be launching Ulysses 100, a new digital platform and guide to the international events celebrating the Joycean centenary, and alongside online exhibits, articles and films it will also feature introductions to the book.
Throughout the year, MoLI, which is located in one of Dublin’s finest historic houses, will host a series of events, inviting artists, writers and performers to discuss Ulysses and its continued impact on creativity today. These will be broadcast online to help global audiences connect with the novel.
Other highlights will include a series of special tours of the breathtaking Georgian houses and rooms in which Joyce studied as a young student. MoLI’s full Ulysses 100 programme, however, will be revealed on 2 February for the period running up to Bloomsday.
Traditional Breakfast at Bloomsday
The James Joyce Centre in the city also kicks off its centenary celebrations on 2 February. This stunning Georgian townhouse has many connections to Joyce and his works, including the original door from No. 7 Eccles Street, Leopold Bloom’s address in Ulysses.
Key events will include an exhibition of paintings by Aidan Hickey, which will chart the 18 episodes of Ulysses, and an exhibition of never-before-seen archival material that belonged to the English painter Frank Budgen, who was a close friend of Joyce.
The centre will also run a series of walking tours from February onwards, which will take in performance, food and drink along with famous sites from the novel.
The annual Bloomsday Festival, which is run by the James Joyce Centre, is an event that every Joyce fan must attend at least once.
A major literary holiday in Dublin, it brings thousands together for great fun, readings, musical concerts, pub crawls and other events that pay homage to the special novel.
This year it will take place during the lead up to Bloomsday, 16 June, and will feature a myriad of ways to connect with Ulysses, with music, tours, theatre and talks in historic locations from the novel.
Other places and events in Dublin that will mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses will include the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove and Davy Byrnes’ pub, immortalised in the book.
And inviting Ulysses fans everywhere to visit the city Joyce put so resoundingly on the literary map, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin will host the 28th International James Joyce Symposium from 12 – 18 June.
James Joyce is but one of the many famous authors who have called Dublin, a UNESCO City of Literature, home.
Next year Dublin will also celebrate Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula and another of the city’s great literary sons. Stoker’s gothic masterpiece has never gone out of print.
As 2022 marks the 125th year of the publication of Dracula, the annual Bram Stoker Festival will be extra special. The celebration of the life and works of the acclaimed writer in his birthplace takes place over the Halloween weekend next year.
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