Bloomsday is a growing celebration in Canada. This year Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa are joining in the Global Bloomsday Gathering that is getting underway in Dublin, Ireland. One of the highlights this year is the live, on-line reading of the 1922 novel by James Joyce that many say is the greatest of the 20th century, and the source of all these events.
In Montreal, the celebrations begin tomorrow when the libraries come alive with readings and cabarets. Over the next three days and nights, there will be tours of old Irish neighbourhoods, lectures, a screening of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well as the Canada-Ireland co-production, Love and Savagery, and various performances of some of the most-loved episodes in the book.
David Schurman is a retired college administrator and biology professor. It’s now in his retirement that he began to share his love for the novel with other retirees. ListenIn the last few years the appreciation grew as others came to understand what is so compelling and enjoyable in Ulysses 935 pages.
This year “Bloomsday” is celebrated over three days in Montreal. It culminates on Sunday joining people in 25 cities around the world for the global reading. And in Montreal the festivities end in a Quiz Night. Always a guarantee of some great craic!
Carmel Kilkenny spoke with David Schurman about how his passion for Joyce’s Leopold Bloom, led to this celebration in June.
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