It continues to bloom and blossom from year to year with this year’s Bloomsday celebrations in Bruff set to be bigger and better that the previous three.
This is the fourth year of the town’s Joycean celebration and such is its popularity that the organisers have extended the scholarly festival extravaganza to four days running from this Thursday 13th June to Sunday June 17th.
The festival kicks off on Thursday with an Edwardian tea dance in the Church of Ireland, Bruff from 3.00 to 6.00 p.m. Friday’s main attraction is the Gala Eve of Bloomsday Concert which will be staged at the local National School Hall at 8.00 p.m. and will feature Michael Holohan, composer and authority on Joyce and up to 80 of the Voices of Limerick Choir. Topping the bill will be internationally renowned opera singer Suzanne Murphy whose parents hail from Bruff and who was educated at the local F.C.J. School. Early on Friday an event has been organised in conjunction with Limerick Writer’s Centre at the Milk Market venue to raise awareness of the Bruff event.
Saturday is Bloomsday and will be opened by Mary Harvey and is a day packed with activities and events including street singing, a traditional Joycean breakfast in the Church of Ireland at 11.30 `a.m., a Gorgonzola and Red Wine party at Clancy’s Bar at 3.00 p.m., the National Butcher Boys Bicycle Race at 4.00 p.m. a Bloomsday in Bruff lecture by Gerard Hanberry, an expert on Joyce and Wilde at the Old Bank at 5.00 p.m. and finishing off with the 4th Annual Bloomsday Dinner in the Olde Bakehouse at 8.00 p.m.
Rounding off the festivities on Sunday at 4.00 p.m. in the Church of Ireland is the one woman show Joyced featuring Katie Kelly straight from a great run at Bewley’s Cafe Theatre.