BLOOMSDAY is the 16th of June 1904 and is the day on which all the action of James Joyce’s novel "Ulysses" takes place.
 
“Ulysses” by James Joyce was published in Paris in 1922 and every year around the world people gather to read aloud extracts from a book that many regard as inaccessible.  In Dublin at lunchtime on June 16th it is traditional to stop off for a glass of burgundy and a Gorgonzola sandwich at Davy Byrne's Pub on Duke Street, just as Bloom did. Others may prefer a visit to the National Library in Kildare Street or Holles Street Maternity Hospital  where Stephen Dedalus engages in profound exploration of the interface between the intellect and the creative imagination.

The character Stephen Dedalus is generally regarded as being based on the author James Joyce. The extracts from “Proteus” and “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” on this site provide an insight into the poetic sensibility of the young Joyce growing up in Dublin.

We invite you to delve into Joyce’s “Ulysses” on line or download it onto your mobile phone: Click on this link

If you are organising a Bloomsday event in Australia in 2011 please contact Clara Mason of the James Joyce Foundation, Australia.

Joyce chose white letters on a blue field for the cover of "Ulysses"  directly to salute the Greek flag and to pay homage to the homeland of Odysseus. Joyce wrote that "in a special way they symbolize the myth well - the white islands scattered over the sea."  Blue and white are also the colours of Zurich where most of the book was written and the Zurich trams are painted a bright cobalt blue and white.