Press release
Irish Embassies present global Bloomsday celebration
From Department of Foreign Affairs
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Foreign Affairs
Published on
Last updated on
To mark Bloomsday 2022 (16 June) and the centenary year of Joyce’s Ulysses, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Ireland’s global network of Embassies and Consulates have collaborated with dozens of partners worldwide to present their largest global Bloomsday celebration to date.
DFA and Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) have collaborated with 35 Irish Embassies and Consulates worldwide to create Hold to the Now, a new short film for Bloomsday. Filming has taken place across 5 continents, from Cairo to Kyiv, Austin to Abuja, Singapore to Santiago, and Berlin to Brasilia. Performers include actors Stephen Fry and Glenn Keogh (Curb Your Enthusiasm), leading Irish artist Amanda Coogan, and one of the world’s most eminent Joyceans, 94-year-old Dr Fritz Senn, President of the James Joyce Foundation in Zurich. Hold to the Now, with an original score composed and performed by Cormac Begley, will be available to view on the DFA YouTube channel from 9.30am on Tuesday 14 June.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, commented:
"Our 2022 Bloomsday campaign is a global celebration of Joyce in this centenary year of the publication of ‘Ulysses’, embracing not only literature but film, visual art, performing arts and Irish studies. Global Ireland’s continuing innovation in cultural diplomacy connects new audiences worldwide with Irish ideas and creative excellence through the diverse partnerships forged by our diplomatic network."
Irish Embassies and Consulates are also marking Bloomsday 2022 with an extraordinary diversity of events in collaboration with local partners. Joycean fans worldwide can enjoy an isiZulu performance of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in Johannesburg, a Vietnamese version of Dubliners in Hanoi, newly commissioned Ulysses murals by acclaimed Irish artist Aideen Barry in Hungary and by 18 universities across Brazil, a jazz-inflected Joycean song cycle in San Francisco, and much more. Check out the full range of activities at Ireland.ie/Bloomsday.
To reach new global audiences as part of DFA’s Bloomsday campaign, Irish Embassies and Consulates have also organised a second annual Global Joycean Book Giveaway. Over the Bloomsday period, over 3,500 copies of Ulysses, Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are being distributed across 4 continents, in 12 languages ranging from Vietnamese, Indonesian and Japanese to Portuguese, Hungarian and Croatian. To deliver this, our diplomatic network has partnered with national and public libraries, secondary schools, universities, bookshops, literary cafés and cultural centres, including remote libraries in the Australian outback and street cafés in Indonesia.
In Dublin, Museum of Literature Ireland offers a rich programme of events throughout Bloomsday on 16 June, while the Bloomsday Festival, presented by the James Joyce Centre, embraces an extensive range of programming from 12-18 June, including film screenings, art exhibitions and walking-and-sketching tours of the city. Find out more at bloomsdayfestival.ie, moli.ie and ulysses100.ie.
HOLD TO THE NOW:
Original Score Composed & Performed by Cormac Begley
Creative Direction: bigO, Eugene Downes & Simon O’Connor