More than 30 of Ireland’s embassies and consulates mark Bloomsday 2021 with various physical and virtual events in collaboration with local partners.
“Based on Ireland’s innovations in digital diplomacy over the past year, our Bloomsday 2021 campaign is a global celebration of Joyce, as our diplomatic network mobilizes hundreds of different partnerships to provide inspiring Irish literature to new audiences on six continents,” Foreign Minister Questions and Defense Secretary Simon Coveney said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Irish government outlined the following activities for Bloomsday 2021:
- Consulate General of Ireland In New York has partnered with the University of Buffalo to unveil a new 36-foot lively James Joyce mural in the city, create a landmark for the Irish community and raise awareness of the home of the largest collection of Joyce manuscripts and materials.
- IN Mozambique, the Irish Embassy wants to expose talented local writers with a Bloomsday Poetry Competition, open to all ages.
- The Irish Embassy in London will host a virtual Bloomsday celebration of James Joyce’s life and work with the help of special guests including author Emma Dabiri who will host the event and actor Adrian Dunbar who will perform a reading of Joyce.
- Embassy of Ireland in Indonesia brings Joyce’s Ulysses to life with a Bloomsday Booth that recreates the iconic Sweneys pharmacy together with an interactive exhibition, all displayed in one of Jakarta’s most prominent shopping malls.
- IN Stockholm, Sweden, combines the Irish Embassy Bloomsday with the big national celebration of Midsummer, which presents Molly’s Midsummer, with the best of Irish and Swedish culture for the audience from the city harbor.
- IN Pretoria, South Africa, The embassy will take part in a cultural event on 16 June and collaborate with a literary social enterprise and a non-profit group aimed at improving access to literature for young people in Johannesburg’s inner city and will donate copies of Joyce’s work.
- Embassy of Ireland in Mexico collaborates with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) to present Joyce at the Latin America Conference, hosts high-profile speakers and experts on James Joyce and Irish literature to a greater extent. One of the highlights of the conference was the announcement of the establishment of Eavan Boland Anne Enright Irish Studies Chair at UNAM. This is the first dedicated chair of Irish literature in Mexico and will be the cornerstone of a development program for Irish studies.
- IN Sydney, Australia, The Consulate of Ireland is collaborating with the University of Sydney to present one Joycean Jam, collaborates with the local artistic collective Prankqueans to engage the audience in a celebration of Joyce’s work through cabaret reading, spoken words and singing.
- IN Atlanta, Georgia, Nuala O’Connor, author of the acclaimed Nora, joins Emory’s University Geraldine Higgins, Consul General Ciara O’Floinn and others on June 16 for ” In praise of women ”. This program, a collaboration between the Irish Consulate in Atlanta and the Ars Theater, celebrates the women of Joyce’s life and work, most notably Nora Barnacle, the inspiration for Molly Bloom.
In addition, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) have collaborated to produce Opens Ulysses, a short film created in collaboration with forty Irish embassies and consulates around the world. Before the 100th anniversary of the novel’s publication in February next year, this specially commissioned film invites a global audience to collaborate with Ulysses through a playful, virtuoso new performance of its opening line: State chubby Buck Mulligan came down the stairs and carried a bowl of foam on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. The recording took place in more than 40 locations on six continents, from Alaska to Abuja, Santiago to Seoul and Canberra to Chicago. The short film is watched DFA YouTube channel.
As a further initiative to reach new global audiences as part of DFA’s Bloomsday campaign, Irish embassies and consulates have also organized a Global Joycean Book Giveaway. During the Bloomsday period, more than 5,000 copies of Ulysses, Dubliners and A portrait of the artist as a young man will be distributed in more than 100 cities on six continents, in 18 languages, from Chinese, Japanese and Latvian to Hebrew, Greek and Bahasa. To deliver this, Ireland’s diplomatic network has partnered with hundreds of local organizations, including national and public libraries, colleges, universities, development organizations, bookstores, literary cafés, cultural centers, broadcast media and transport hubs.