In Bloom’s footsteps: National Library of Ireland brings Ulysses to life with new Bloomsday 2026 programme

In collaboration with the James Joyce Centre, this year’s programme invites visitors into the heart of the National Library of Ireland (NLI), bringing to life James Joyce’s Ulysess on June 16th. Inspired by the scenes from Ulysses set at the NLI, the programme features a variety of readings and performances as part of the official Bloomsday Festival. 

Headlining the programme is a special theatrical reading by actors in Joycean costume from scenes set in the NLI’s iconic Reading Room. During the performance Ulysses characters Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan meet the ‘quaker librarian’, NLI’s former Director Thomas William Lyster, and Leopold Bloom consults the NLI’s newspaper collections on a quest to find a back issue of the Kilkenny People. Performances start at 2.00pm and 2.30pm in the Main Reading Room of the National Library, on Kildare Street, coinciding with the exact hour Bloom enters the National Library. Booking for this free event is essential.

Visitors to the NLI can also enjoy a special performance by the Fingal Mummers inspired by Ulysses character Buck Mulligan’s mummers play. This performance takes place from 3pm-4pm on the front steps of National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street. On hand to welcome visitors for the occasion will be the James Joyce Massive Head by the Galway-based performing arts group Arcana. Period-style props will be also available to support the festive atmosphere and create iconic photographic opportunities on the portico steps. No booking required for this free event. 

At the Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again exhibition at the Bank of Ireland Cultural &
Heritage Centre, visitors can listen to readings from Seamus Heaney’s Finders Keepers. Discover the joys of Joyce’s language through the eyes of Heaney, with examples from the Aeolus chapter of Ulysses. The performance will be held at 12 noon. No booking required for this free event. 

Central to NLI’s partnership with the James Joyce Centre is the Bloomsday 2026 Passport. Bloomsday festival goers can get their passport stamped at the NLI on Kildare Street and Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again exhibition, a College Green stop, with different stamps available to collect in each location. 

The NLI’s beautiful Reading Room which featured in Episode 9: Scylla and Charybdis of Ulysses will also be open to the public to visit between 6pm – 8pm on June 16th. 

The full Bloomsday programme at the National Library of Ireland including booking links can be found here. 

Director of the National Library of Ireland, Dr Audrey Whitty, said: 

“The National Library of Ireland is central to the Bloomsday story, and we are delighted to be part of the Bloomsday Festival this year. Not only is our beautiful Reading Room the setting for one of the chapters of Ulysses – ‘Scylla and Charybdis’- it also features National Library director at the time, Thomas William Lyster, who would have been well known to James Joyce. With his wealth of knowledge, Thomas William Lyster was renowned for encouraging young people to read and that ethos of making our National Collections accessible remains at the heart of the National Library’s work today.” 

Director of the James Joyce Centre, Darina Gallagher, said:

“We are proud to be working with the National Library of Ireland this Bloomsday with an expanded programme of events, bringing to life the characters and places of Ulysses. The Bloomsday Festival is a colourful celebration of James Joyce himself and especially his acclaimed novel Ulysses with its rich cast of characters. In partnership with the NLI and through our Bloomsday Passport, we encourage everyone to embark on their own literary journey around Dublin, following in the footsteps of Bloom and Dedalus on that summer afternoon in 1904.” 

ENDS