I love the story of Bloomsday.
As I also love Garrison Keillor, I'll let him tell it.
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| John Ryan (businessman, painter, and owner/editor of literary magazine Envoy), Anthony Cronin (poet and critic who turns 84 this year), Brian O'Nolan (author, playwright, and columnist), Patrick Kavanagh (novelist and poet), and Tom Joyce (dentist, and cousin of James) |
"The first modern celebration of Bloomsday was in 1954, the 50th
anniversary of the fictional events in Joyce's book, and about three
decades after Joyce published his novel in 1922. Irish writers Flann
O'Brien [O'Nolan's pen name] and Patrick Kavanagh got together with critic John Ryan and a
dentist cousin of James Joyce, named Tom Joyce, to make a daylong
pilgrimage around Dublin. They were to have stops at the Martello Tower
(the opening scene of the novel), Davy Byrne's Pub (where Bloom eats a
gorgonzola cheese sandwich) and 7 Eccles Street (where Bloom and his
wife, Molly, lived). They role-played, acted out the dialogue, and rode
in horse-drawn carriages like those described in the scene of Paddy
Dignam's funeral. They were supposed to end up in the red-light section
of Dublin, where the 15th chapter of Ulysses 'Nighttown' is
set, but the literary pilgrims got a bit drunk and distracted at a pub
about halfway through the route and lost their ambition to finish it."-- Garrison Keillor, today on The Writer's Almanac
Enjoy the beverage of your choice today in honor of
Leopold Bloom.
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