Walking Joycean Mullingar for Bloomsday

Bloomsday is this Friday June 16 and historian Ruth Illingworth will be walking Joycean Mullingar, as well as reading from his works, at a special breakfast in the Greville Arms.

Starting at 11am in the Greville, Ruth will read aloud from James Joyce's works, which mention Mullingar several times, and at 3pm, and again at 7pm, Ruth will be giving guided walks that explore the world of Joyce in Mullingar during his time here in 1900 and 1901.

"He never forgot the town. The walking tours will explore what life was like when Joyce was here during 1900 and 1901. Of course this paper will be mentioned," says Ruth.

"The Westmeath Examiner is mentioned in his writings. At the time Joyce was in Mullingar, the Examiner office was beside the Greville Arms, the bit that's between the Mad Hatter Cafe and the De Courcy Suite.

"He was fascinated by the Examiner because it was the same age he was. Anything that happened in 1882 he was interested in, I think he was seven months older than the Examiner," she explains.

Mullingar is mentioned in nearly all of James Joyce's books, not least Ulysses.

"His earliest novel, Stephen Hero, which he rewrote as Portrait to the Artist as a Young Man, the manuscript still survives and it was published in 1940. There's a chapter set in Mullingar," says Ruth.

"He mentions the Westmeath Examiner, the Railway Station, the Greville Arms Hotel. Stephen Hero describes the 'long crooked main street'. His father was sorting out the electoral registers, he was employed by Westmeath County Council, so that's why Joyce was here in the first place.

"James seems to have helped his father, they worked in the Courthouse and also in Cathedral House because the County Buildings hadn't been built at that stage.

"It's possible that he lived in what's now Fagan's Office Supplies. It was then run by a guy called Phil Shaw, a photographer's, that where Millie Bloom, the teenage daughter of Leopold Bloom is working in Mullingar, as a photographer's assistant.

"He was fascinated with things like Belvedere House because he had gone to Belvedere School because it was originally the town house of the Rochfort family. He seems to have visited Uisneach because he mentions 'The Hill' in Finnegan's Wake."

- Walks will start at the main door of the Greville Arms Hotel at 3pm and 7pm. A reading from James Joyce's works will take place at 11am in Greville Arms.