Bloomsday is being marked in Ljubljana

Bloomsday - the annual celebration of Ireland's literary icon James Joyce and his novel Ulysses - will be marked in Ljubljana next Thursday 16 June at 10 am with a special event at Ljubljana Train Station, organised by the Embassy of Ireland in Slovenia.

This event will take place at Platform 1 of Ljubljana Railway Station, where a plaque by Slovenian sculptor, Jakov Brdar, commemorates Joyce and the night he spent in Ljubljana while en route to Trieste. Following the Bloomsday tradition, there will be readings from Ulysses (in English and Slovenian), followed by food inspired by the book and refreshments.

All are welcome to join us for this event.

Details: Bloomsday Commemoration, 10am, Thursday 16 June, 1st Platform at Ljubljana Train Station (next to the underpass stairs). All welcome.

Note for Editors:

Bloomsday is named after Leopold Bloom, the central character in Ulysses, and has been marked on the day on which the book is set, 16 June, since at least 1927. Nowadays the main Bloomsday celebrations take place in Dublin, where a six day literary festival is being held in 2016, but events to mark the day take place all over the world, including in Pula and Trieste where Joyce lived for periods of his life. The day has also been marked periodically in Ljubljana.

The novel Ulysses follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom and a host of other characters - real and fictional - from 8am on 16 June 1904 through to the early hours of the following morning. It is generally regarded as the most complete example of a modernist novel, incorporating extensive stream-of-consciousness writing, neologisms, experimental prose and comedy. The novel is loosely structured on the classical epic Odysseus and parallels can be found in the Ulysses text. The novel was judged obscene and banned in several countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, but never in Ireland.

The date of the novel is significant in that Joyce is reputed to have had his first date with Nora Barnacle, his life partner, on 16 June 1904. It is believed that his family disapproved of the relationship and in October of the same year Joyce and Barnacle left Ireland en route to Zurich, where he had been promised a teaching job at the Berlitz School. In Zurich he was redirected to Trieste and on this part of the journey he and Barnacle left the train in Laibach/ Ljubljana, apparently believing he had reached his destination, on 19 October 1904. The James Joyce memorial at the train station marks this event. The memorial was commissioned by Beletrina with patronage from the Ministry of Culture as part of the Statues at railway stations project. The unveiling took place on Bloomsday 2003. Designed by sculptor Jakov Brdar, the memorial takes the form of a gully grating, cast in bronze and gilded, with an engraved quote from Joyce's Ulysses in Slovene and English.

Contact: Petra Kožuh 01-3008990