Historian to celebrate Bloomsday in Mullingar

The connections between James Joyce and Mullingar will be marked and celebrated by historian Ruth Illingworth on Bloomsday, Friday June 16.

Ruth leads fascinating history tours of the town on a regular basis, and in three tours on Friday she will focus on the famous writer, and will read from his works in The Greville Arms Hotel.

Explaining the links, Ruth wrote:

The novelist James Joyce lived in Mullingar for a number of weeks in the summers of 1900 and 1901, as his father had been hired by Westmeath County Council to sort out the electoral rolls for the county, which were out of date.

James accompanied his father to the town, and the Joyces could have stayed at Levington Park on the shores of Lough Owel, which was then the residence of the county council secretary, W Levinge.

They might also have stayed with local photographer, Philip Shaw, at his business and residence on Pearse Street – now Fagan Toymaster and Office Supplies.

During their time in Mullingar, Joyce and his father worked in the Courthouse and in Cathedral House. They visited bars such as Connellan’s on Mount Street (now Caffrey’s Bar) and The Greville Arms Hotel.

Joyce would also have visited the Westmeath Examiner office, which was then beside the Greville Arms. The Examiner would have been of interest to him because the paper was the same age as he was.

After 1901, Joyce never returned to Mullingar, but he never forgot the town.

Mullingar features in two of his novels: ‘Stephen Hero’ and ‘Ulysses’. ‘Stephen Hero’ has a chapter set in Mullingar and features places such as the Greville Arms, Levington Park, the railway station and the Westmeath Examiner office. In ‘Ulysses’, Millie Bloom,the daughter of Leopold and Molly, is in Mullingar learning ‘the photo business’ and going to concerts in the Greville Arms and on picnics at Lough Owel.

Mullingar was the only town in Ireland outside Dublin where Joyce lived for any length of time. He wrote his first literary work, an unpublished play called ‘A Brilliant Career’, while in the town. The Mullingar historian and photographer Leo Daly,in his book ‘James Joyce and the Mullingar Connection’, argued that Mullingar helped to make Joyce the writer that he became.

Bloomsday tours and readings

James Joyce in Mullingar, Friday June 16 at 11am, 3pm and 7pm, from The Greville Arms Hotel; adults €5, children free; guide Ruth Illingworth.

Ruth will read from Joyce’s work at 10.30am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm in the Greville Arms (free event) – for further information phone 087 947 2583 or email ruthillingworthmullingar@gmail.com.