FROM Dublin to Zurich, Joyce enthusiasts are preparing to celebrate Bloomsday — but one of the more unusual commemorations will take place in a Northampton cemetery.
Northampton will also be celebrating the day — with events taking place in a graveyard followed by a pub; in fact, a very Joycean itinerary.
Bloomsday, June 16, is the day in 1904 — according to the novel Ulysses — when Leopold Bloom, a Jewish salesman, wanders around Dublin. Joyce captures a day in the life of the city’s more marginalised citizens, befriending young artist Stephen Dedalus on the way.
During their odyssey they deal with many of life’s imponderables through witnessing a funeral, stopping in at Davy Byrne’s pub, and visiting a maternity hospital — to name only a few of their excursions.
The text is replete with stream of consciousness, puns, parodies and allusions, and is today regarded as one of the greatest literary works in history.
The book helped shape the way we look at literature, and it has influenced generations of writers.
Joyce had one daughter, Lucia Ana Joyce, who lived and died in Northampton. She is buried in Kingsthorpe Cemetery far from where her father I buried — in Fluntern Cemetery in Zurich. Lucia’s mother, Nora Barnacle — who looms large on Bloomsday, and has the final word in Ulysses — also takes her eternal rest in Fluntern in Switzerland, high above the city. Joyce said of Lucia: “Whatever spark or gift I possess has been transmitted to Lucia and it has kindled a fir in her brain.”
Every year on Bloomsday, her grave in Kingsthorpe Cemetery is the focus for Joyce enthusiasts to gather and pay tribute to her life, as well as to share readings from her father’s work.
Celebrants and attendees over the years have included biographer Gordon Bowker, Sean Cannon of The Dubliners, representatives of the Irish Embassy in London, and members of the Triskellion Irish Theatre Company, based in Nottingham.
Triskellion’s redoubtable Gerry Molumby is one of the main organisers of the event and, in indomitable spirit, leads events and readings.
This year Gerry will be joined by local writer Richard Rose, who has co-written a short play with James Volmer entitled Letters to Lucia.
The drama is focused on fictional correspondence to Lucia from key personalities who knew her, including her father and mother, Samuel Beckett, and Kathleen “Kitten” Neel, who performed with Lucia in a Paris dance troupe. The pair performed together in 1920s Paris as part of the avant-garde dance troupe Les Six de Rythme et de Couleur. Frank Budgen, artist, writer and close confidant of the Joyce family, serves as the narrator in the drama.
Members of the Triskellion Irish Theatre Company, including Deirdre O’Byrne, Chris Dalton and Nollaigín Doughan, will be performing in costume. The Finnegans Wake Band will close proceedings at the graveside of Lucia Joyce with a rendition of Love's Old Sweet Song.
This year proceedings begin at 7pm at Kingsthorpe Cemetery. Afterwards, the company and audience will repair to the Whitehills Pub, where a buffet will be provided.
Triskellion Theatre Company presents Bloomsday 2026 at Kingsthorpe Cemetery, Harborough Road, Northampton, at the grave of Lucia Joyce on Tuesday, June 16 at 7.30. The event is free - bring a garden chair.
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