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Joyce's Dublin

© Irene Togher

James Joyce didn't like Dublin. He made no secret of the fact. But his writing is filled with the city. From his early work, Dubliners, to his last novel, Finnegan's Wake, Joyce shows a type of obsession with the city of his birth and childhood. Although in voluntary exile abroad, Joyce could accurately paint a picture of Dublin in detail that would be difficult to achieve for someone walking its streets and taking notes every day.

The novel that shows this most clearly is, of course, his famous work, Ulysses. Joyce once said of this novel:

"I want to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book."

His achievement may come short of being able to rebuild Dublin brick by brick but it is possible to trace Leopold Bloom's walk around the city in the exact timing of the character - that is how accurate Joyce's calculations were. And this is exactly what many people do every year on the 16th of June.

Joyce once wrote in his diary:

"Today 16 of June 1924 twenty years after. Will anybody remember this date?"

His pessimism is understandable since, at the time, Ulysses was still under a ban for obscenity in the USA and Britain. Today however, Joyce would be well satisfied with the attention his masterpiece receives. It is probably one of the most critiqued novels in the world and while many consider it unreadable, few would argue that it is not a classic.

Bloomsday has become something of a National Holiday in Ireland and is celebrated in many other countries around the world also, including Melbourne, Toyko, Capetown, Rome, Buenos Aires, Toronto and New York. Celebrated on the day that Ulysses takes place, the actual date was significant in Joyce's own life. It was the date that he first walked out with Nora Barnacle, the woman who would become his wife.

The novel centers on Leopold Bloom's day in Dublin City, the people he meets and the thoughts that go through his mind. He crosses paths with Stephen Dedalus, a young writer who is Joyce's alter ego. It is estimated that Bloom covers 18 miles of Dublin in his wanderings - on foot, by tram and horse-drawn carriage. So if you're hoping to tour all the sites mentioned in the novel, in the exact footsteps of Bloom, then count on being in Dublin for more than a day.