By Paddy McCarthy
I took an Out&About trip by ferry from Port Jefferson up to Bridgeport ferry terminal, Connecticut. I then headed up to Norwalk, Connecticut for the weekend and boy was it great to visit with family, my daughter Christina and her husband Kevin Coyne. Then the fun started as we went and spent some time on Saturday afternoon at the Gaelic American Club, sponsors of the Fairfield Gaelic Pipe Band and Clan na Gael Players, a group of about 30 members who perform plays written by Irish playwrights or addressing Irish themes.
The club hosts Irish language lessons and maintains a library containing Irish literature. Members can enjoy a separate children’s room with an Irish theme while seniors participate in monthly luncheons and periodic day trips. Additionally, two scholarships are awarded annually.
It took my breath away how nice this club is and they serve a very nice menu with some great food, and now for the best part: the drinks were very reasonably priced as well.
Now that visit was around 1 pm so that evening we headed to a a really beautiful establishment in Westport called the Hudson Malone Kitchen and Bar that has a little bit of New York City that blends seamlessly with Westport charm, well that’s what they told me and it looks like that. The service and the food was just excellent and, of course, the cocktails could not be any better… ah, I love it. If you ever take a trip to Connecticut, you should visit Hudson Malone at 323 Main Street, Westport. After that visit I will definitely pay a visit to the New York City Hudson Malone establishment very soon.
Take from me it from me that it is highly recommended. I love these trips as I am sure I will be taking a lot more this summer.
Yes! It’s all happening next weekend and you’re asked to join Origin Theatre at Bloom’s Tavern on Sunday June 11 as they celebrate Ten Years of Bloomsday at Blooms Tavern. Enjoy selected readings from Joyce’s most celebrated novel Ulysses along with live music with Allen Gogarty, James Joyce pub trivia with Jeopardy Champion Austin Tyler Rogers, readings from Ulysses with Terry Donnelly, Meg Hennessy, Kate Kennon and Paula Nance, Molly and Leopold Bloom inspired “Best Dressed” competition, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, raffle prizes and a specialty cocktail inspired by Jameson Irish Whiskey. There is no cover charge, but a suggested donation of $10.
I got a special invitation from Michael Mellamphy for both myself and Brad Balfour, our Arts and Entertainment Editor to attend. Michael would be thrilled to speak to us all about it in the run up to the event, I must try and arrange that.
Here is a little history on Bloomsday, a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June 16, the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place in 1904, the date of his first encounter with his wife-to-be Nora Barnacle, and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom.
The first mentions of such a celebration is to be found in a letter by Joyce to Miss Weaver of June 27, 1924, which refers to “a group of people who observe what they call Bloom’s Day – 16 June”. On the 50th anniversary of the events in the novel, in 1954, John Ryan (artist, critic, publican and founder of Envoy magazine) and the novelist Brian O’Nolan organized what was to be a day long pilgrimage along the Ulysses route. They were joined by Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Tom Joyce (a dentist who, as Joyce’s cousin, represented the family interest) and AJ Leventhal (a lecturer in French at Trinity College Dublin).
Ryan had engaged two horse-drawn cabs, of the old-fashioned kind, in which in Ulysses Mr. Bloom and his friends drive to Paddy Dignam’s funeral. The party were assigned roles from the novel. Cronin stood in for Stephen Dedalus, O’Nolan for his father Simon Dedalus, John Ryan for the journalist Martin Cunningham, and AJ Leventhal, being Jewish, was recruited to fill (unknownst to him, according to John Ryan) the role of Leopold Bloom. They planned to travel round the city through the day, starting at the Martello Tower at Sandycove (where the novel begins), visiting in turn the scenes of the novel, ending at night in what had once been the brothel quarter of the city, the area which Joyce had called Nighttown.
The pilgrimage was abandoned halfway through, when the weary pilgrims succumbed to inebriation and rancor at the Bailey Pub in the city center, which Ryan then owned, and at which in 1967 he installed the door to No. 7 Eccles Street (Leopold Bloom’s front door), having rescued it from demolition.
A Bloomsday record of 1954, informally filmed by John Ryan, follows this pilgrimage. Now isn’t that something and yes you should all enjoy one of Ireland’s greatest treasures and that is James Joyce himself, now go out and celebrate, I know that I will, Happy Bloomsday to you all.
New York City has several events on Bloomsday including formal readings at Symphony Space and informal readings and music at the downtown Ulysses’ Folk House pub. The Irish American Bar Association of New York will also celebrate Joyce’s contribution to the First Amendment, with an annual keynote speech named after John Quinn, the Irish-American lawyer who defended Joyce’s New York publishers in their obscenity trial in 1922.
In 2014, New York celebrated Bloomsday with “Bloomsday on Broadway”, which included famous actors reading excerpts of the books, and commentators explaining the work between segments. The 2016 celebration included a juried competition for the Best Dressed Molly and Leopold Bloom, selected from among attendees by a blue-ribbon panel including image strategist Margaret Molloy several design figures.
It’s been celebrated all over the United States of America, here are some of them, check this out. In Los Angeles, California, Bloomsday is celebrated at the Hammer Museum every year with readings, music and libations. The Kansas City Irish Center currently hosts the Bloomsday celebration, started at the now closed Bloomsday Books in 1995. Usually a daylong event, the center hosts readings, a documentary, a play, Irish dancers and a performance by Dublin balladeer Eddie Delahunt. This has been an annual event since its inception. The Syracuse James Joyce Club holds an annual Bloomsday celebration at Johnston’s BallyBay Pub, at which large portions of the book are either read aloud, or presented as dramatisations by costumed performers. The Nighttown Restaurant/Jazz Club in Cleveland, Ohio holds an annual reading of the novel on Bloomsday and in Wichita, Kansas Bloomsday is honored by a presentation on James Joyce (often by Dr Marguerite Regan) as well as readings from Ulysses and Irish folk music, sponsored by the Wichita Irish Cultural Association.
In the meantime I hope to see you all at Bloom’s Tavern (208 East 58th Street, New York).
Hope to see you all again next week when I am Out&About again.