There are several notable Irish writers who have settled in or near Scotland’s ‘Little Ireland’. Hayden Murphy brought his wonderful Broadsheets with him from Dublin in the late 1970’s, which have been deposited in the National Library of Scotland. It was Hayden who began and continued the tradition of Bloomsday Abroad. His poetic ouvre currently takes the form of limited edition monographs with his friend Hugh Bryden, in celebration of major dates in the Irish calendar.
Marking St Patrick’s Day, Bloomsday and Christmas, they post out 50 works of wonder across the world.
Inspired by and as an homage to Hayden’s Bloomsday Abroad, in 2016 Little Ireland Arts Collective started a local annual event – ‘Ulysses and Us’.
‘Bloomsday: Ulysses and You’ documents several years’ playful, serious and randomly chosen readings of Joyce’s Ulysses on 16th June in and around Edinburgh’s Old Town.
We then opened out the invitation.
We warmly invite you, annually, to contribute:
Join us as we (begin to) read the entire 700 pages of Ulysses* aloud in the course of Bloomsday, 16th June (this doesn’t all have to be in the same year!). We are (eventually) aiming to attract around 100 small groups (2+) of readers in settings across Edinburgh, Scotland and beyond. You are invited to record your reading and post (audio or video). We will also be delighted to see news of your gathering, in photos and words at this page: