Pictures of people reading at a Bloomsday event in Portland OR on June 18, 2026
Why do you think it’s called BLOOMSday? As they’ve been doing every year since the turn of the century, Portland Hibernians gathered for their take on the day. Some pictures and captions from (belated) Bloomsday on June 18, 2026 at Kells Restaurant in Downtown Portland.
James Joyce loved his father even though few others did
For some James Joyce scholars the author’s relationship with his father John was complicated. For Joyce himself it was simple: He loved him despite his faults. A son’s love and a father’s flaws - and vice versa - make for a timeless Father’s Day story.
Joyce’s “locale was Celtic and his season Spring”
Bloomsday. Has any other novel ever inspired annual celebrations as Ulysses has? James Joyce’s masterwork was banned in America during the 1920s. Then a Republican Judge in New York City read it and ruled that it wasn’t obscene. The rest is literary history.