Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathoirligh. This morning, I wanted to talk about tomorrow, 16 June or Bloomsday, which is the day we celebrate the hero of the James Joyce novel,Ulysses, Leopold Bloom. It was written in 1922, and Bloomsday was first celebrated in 1954, and it has been celebrated every year in Dublin. It is interesting to reflect on the fact that James Joyce was an Irish immigrant living in Europe. He wrote that book as an immigrant, and today our city is home to a lot of immigrants. That is an important point.

It is also really important to remind ourselves that James Joyce famously said that he always wrote about Dublin because he could get to the heart of Dublin, and if he could get to the heart of Dublin, he could get to the heart of all cities in the world. The universal is contained in the particular. That is very true. He used ordinary people and events, and ordinary life, to explore the universal.

Tomorrow, right across Dublin, from Sandycove through here, the city centre and Grafton Street and out into my own constituency, in Eccles Street and Dorset Street, Glasnevin, down into North Great George's Street, there is a fantastic programme of events. Most of them are free. People are giving up their time voluntarily, like the Joyce Stagers and others. I would encourage everybody to check out what is going on for Bloomsday 2023, and to celebrate not just Joyce and Bloom, but to celebrate the extraordinary city that we live, and the extraordinary world that we live in and that is lived by all who have the privilege of residing in our city.