Joyce everywhere - Szombathely and the Hungarian link to James Joyce's Ulysses

Bloomsday is celebrated all around the world on this day 16 June. It marks the day on which James Joyce's fictional character Leopold Bloom walked around the streets of Dublin in Joyce's novel Ulysses. I have just written about the link between Ulysses and the ancient Hungarian city of Szombathely. Read it here. 

In the novel, Joyce says that Leopold Bloom's father was a Jew and that he came from the ancient Hungarian city. Events have been held in Szombathely to mark this connection between Ireland and Hungary for the last number of years. You can learn more about the history of the events on this dedicated website. This year a mural inspired by an episode from the novel will be unveiled in the city. The chosen artist is James Earley and you can find out more about his work here.

 

Bronze Ulysses plaque on Dublin's Grafton Street. Part of the Joyce Trail.

In the Brainstorm piece, I mention the quote often attributed to Joyce whereby he is thought to have said that he believed that his work would keep professors busy for years tying to decipher all the puzzles and enigmas that it contained. This is believed to have come from a French translator of Joyce's work and it dates from the 1950s, many years after Joyce said it to the Frenchman. It was told to Joyce's biographer Richard Ellmann. As such, doubts are sometimes cast on whether it is accurate or maybe it was misremembered by the translator with the passage of time. Either way, it would be nice to think that Joyce did say it whether he did or not. Read more about the quote and the possible truth of it here. 

Book chapter published - Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict

Delighted to say that I received a copy of the book Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict: Historical Perspectives from Ireland and Europe (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2026), ed. by Richard C. Allen, Felix M. Larkin, Oliver O'Hanlon and Aoife Whelan. Details of this book are available on the publisher's website here.

 

Front cover of Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict

My chapter (pp. 55-77) examines the work of Art O'Brien, who was the first Dáil's publicity man in London during the Irish War of Independence. He was responsible for disseminating the message of the 1st Dáil (whose term ran from January 1919 to August 1921) to the foreign press corps based in London and the outside world. He was in constant contact with the Dáil's Publicity Department in Dublin and the various heads of that Department.

The 1st Dáil met for the first time in Dublin's Mansion House before it was outlawed in September 1919. It had to meet in secret thereafter. As such, O'Brien had to be extremely careful when carrying out his mission. You can read more about O'Brien in his entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography or if you want to go further, I would recommend the biography by Mary MacDiarmada Art O'Brien and Irish Nationalism in London, 1900-25.  

 

 

Table of contents.

As you can see from the table of contents reproduced above, the book covers a range of subjects in Ireland, France, Spain and Germany at different times of conflict. I am grateful to my fellow editors, Richard Allen, Felix Larkin and Aoife Whelan, and to the other contributors for all their hard work in bringing this volume to fruition

Andreas Strobl

Michael Foley

Claire Dubois

Claire Guerin

Alan McCarthy +

William Burton

Conor Campbell

Karine Deslandes 

+ Dr Alan McCarthy - sadly Alan did not live to see this volume in print. There is a tribute to Alan on the UCC School of History website, you can read it here. He was a great scholar and a really nice human being. He will be missed.
 

An Irish Diary about Goldenbridge Cemetery in Dublin

Goldenbridge Cemetery in Dublin's Inchicore is a nice place to visit. Much smaller in scale than the famed Glasnevin Cemetery on the northside, it was opened in October 1829 just after Catholic Emancipation was achieved in Ireland. Sometimes referred to as the first Catholic cemetery to be opened in Ireland since the Reformation, it is also referred to as Ireland's first non-denominational cemetery. Read my Irish Diary in today's Irish Times newspaper about the history of this cemetery. 

 

Entrance to Goldenbridge Cemetery. 

On my first visit to the cemetery in May 2026, I was struck by the uniformity of the place. It is not like more modern or larger Irish graveyards where you can find a vast range of gravestones (in terms of size and materials used). It is as if Goldenbridge is somehow frozen in time and has not changed since it was opened in the 19th century. It did close in 1869 but some new burials were allowed after that, including WT Cosgrave (1880-1965) and his son Liam Cosgrave (1920-2017). It is open again to new burials but they must conform to strict criteria laid down by the Dublin Cemeteries Trust (DCT), including a stipulation that no polished stone can be used. The DCT runs Goldenbridge and four other graveyards in Dublin - Glasnevin, Dardistown, Newlands Cross and Palmerstown. 

Some of the graves are enclosed by railings and there is some variation in terms of design - there are some gravestones in the form of Celtic Cross or obelisk or column. But a good few resemble the gravestone of the young boy I mentioned in the article that is located just inside the entrance (example below).

 

Example of gravestone found in Goldenbridge Cemetery Dublin.

The Luas Red Line tram passes the graveyard and you should remember to get off at the Drimnagh stop and not the Goldenbridge one as you might think. Richmond Barracks is close by and also deserves a visit for its rich history as a former military barracks and later as a school. The leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were court-martialed within the walls of the barracks and as this website shows, it has witnessed many historic events in its long life.