Juan David Latorre
Thursday 16 June marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and the Irish Embassy commemorated the occasion with Bloomsday, which was attended by leading literary figures and fans of the Irish writer’s work.
The Irish Ambassador, Frank Smyth, welcomed the guests with a few kind words and also thanked the Bloomsday Society and other “Irish cultural organisations for their contribution to making this event possible on this lovely day”.
After a brief overview of the plot of the novel and a review of that day, 16 June 1904, with Leopold Bloom walking through the streets of Dublin “minding his own business”, the Irish ambassador noted that “Joyce’s life and work show that relations between Ireland and the rest of the world were important even then”.
Throughout the event there were several readings of passages from Ulysses, in a pleasant and intimate, classic Irish atmosphere, with great actors, musicians and singers, who managed to be accompanied in song by the majority of the attendees.
The ceremony was attended by the ambassador of Switzerland, Hanspeter Mock, the country where the writer is buried, and the counsellor of the Slovenian embassy, Tina Grgantov, the country where James Joyce lived for a time.
