Kick off The Bloomsday Festival weekend celebrations at The James Joyce Centre on Friday, June 13th at 7pm with a Joyce-themed cabaret of readings, performance, music and natter, hosted by author David Collard.
Collard will be joined by novelist Rónán Hession (aka Mumblin' Deaf Ro and performing his own songs with his son Jacob), author and poet Nuala O'Connor (reading from her latest poetry collection Menagerie ) and American actress and voice artist Stephanie Ellyne . Surprises and beneficial shocks are guaranteed at this informal one-off gathering, with a nod to 1920s Dada cabaret. All are welcome - not just Joyceans!
David Collard writes for print and online publications including the Times Literary Supplement , Literary Review , 3:AM Magazine , gorse , Exacting Clam , White Review and others. He is the author of Multiple Joyce: One Hundred Short Essays about James Joyce’s Cultural Legacy (2020) and A Crumpled Swan (2025). He lives in London, where he organises cultish online literary gatherings.
Stephanie Ellyne is an American actress based in London. Stage credits include Rest Upon the Wind (Riverside Studios, Theatre Royal Haymarket, and tours to the UAE) and playing Virginia Woolf in Mad Women in Attics (New Wimbledon Theatre). Her voice work includes the British/American audio serial Dark Shadows , nominated for the BBC Audio Drama Awards, and narrating the 45-hour audiobook of Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport for which she was commended in the New York Times . (Ellmann’s novel was described in The Irish Times by Declan O’Driscoll as ‘one of the outstanding books of the century, so far’ and as such an equivalent to Ulysses .) She has recorded short stories for the annual Costa Awards and is a frequent narrator for RNIB Talking Books.
Rónán Hession is a writer, musician and civil servant from Dublin. His debut novel Leonard and Hungry Paul was nominated for the Irish Book Awards, British Book Awards, the BAMB awards, and long-listed for the Republic of Consciousness prize. His third album Dictionary Crimes was nominated for the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year. His second novel Panenka was published by Bluemoose in 2021 and his third, Ghost Mountain , in 2024. He will be performing as his musical alter ego "Mumblin' Deaf Ro," accompanied by his son Jacob.
Nuala O’Connor lives in Co. Galway. Her poetry and fiction have been widely published, anthologised, and won many literary awards. Her sixth novel Seaborne , about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny, was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards. Her novel Nora (New Island), about Nora Barnacle and James Joyce, was a Top 10 historical novel in the New York Times . She won Irish Short Story of the Year at the 2022 An Post Irish Book Awards. Her fifth poetry collection, Menagerie , was recently published by Arlen House.
Tickets are €25. Doors open at 6.30pm.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by The James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Olhausen's Sausages, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.
Cover image: Anne Marie Hantho
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