Bloomsday 2025

Burgess’s admiration of Joyce was explored by Director of the Centre, Andrew Biswell, and we had a chance to hear Burgess himself discussing ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ in a short film (Anthony Burgess — Lots of Fun at Finnegans Wake (1973)). Music was very important to Joyce, who had a reputation as a fine tenor, and the evening included performances by Mackenzie Paget (piano) and Bonnie Callaghan (soprano) of a selection of songs relevant to Ulysses, Joyce and Ireland, including Love's Old Sweet Song (mentioned in several episodes of Ulysses), The Last Rose of Summer, and Danny Boy, with Mackenzie playing Anthony Burgess's piano.

This year, the Consulate was looking to celebrate not just the writings of Joyce, but Bloomsday and Beyond highlighting Ireland’s rich literary culture. To that end we organised a book giveaway as part of the celebrations, with those attending and those who followed our Instagram account, having the opportunity to win one of 12 books by Irish authors, including ‘Ghost Mountain’ by Rónán Hession, who is published by Bluemoose Books in Hebden Bridge. You can see and hear more from the event on our Instagram