ONE day, a young woman by the name of Nora Barnacle (‘she’ll stick to him’ was a remark of her future father-in-law) was walking in central Dublin when she was chatted up by a young man. A date was arranged but she failed to turn up.
Having told him where she was employed, he wrote pleadingly to her and so they did meet again and formally walked out for the first time. The day was 16 June 1904 and she did stick with him for the rest of his life.
Bloomsday 2025
His name was James Joyce and in his novel Ulysses he used the date for his fictional chronicle of a day in the life of Dublin. Celebrated as Bloomsday, after the name of one of the novel’s central characters, it has blossomed into a week-long programme of music, song, walks, talks and dressing up. Highlights include dramatizations from Balloonatics, the Volta theatre company and the sheer quality of Bloomsday events that I witnessed claims its presence on any 2026 travel calendar. In the meantime there is much else to do and see in this city of high culture.
Walking tours and exhibitions at the James Joyce Centre are justly renowned and equally compelling is a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland. The gallery has regular special events and pop-up talks relating to its collection which include paintings by Vermeer, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and – my favourite – Goya’s portrait of Antonia Zárate. A major Picasso exhibition will open in October, through to early 2026, in collaboration with the Musée national Picasso-Paris.
Anantara The Marker facing the Grand Canal and the Daniel Libeskind-designed Bord Gais Energy Theatre
I stayed at Anantara The Marker Dublin Hotel, part of the famed Thai luxury hotel brand, where its cultural awareness is ably matched by top class creature comforts. The hotel’s design-conscious exterior faces a pedestrianized plaza that lights up at night with glowing red light sticks and the absence of motor traffic makes strolling around a pleasure.
The calmness of the locality (avoid show nights at the nearby theatre) – two kilometres from the city centre – is best appreciated on the rooftop with views of the Wicklow Hill to the south and seabirds gliding overhead, occasionally squawking but devoid of Hitchcockian menace. The sedum rooftop scene – with raised beds of grasses and flowers, with alliums and poppies at the edges – is enhanced by sufficient choices of bar food and cocktails to keep you there until dusk or later.
Asian inflections considerably elevate the bar food –scallops with yuzo; wagyu beef with wasabi, sashimi tuna; prawns with a Thai sauce – and the hotel’s cocktails distinguish themselves; a demure martini is politely boosted with umami flavour, courtesy of kombu seaweed.
The Marker’s main restaurant, Forbes Street by Gareth Mullins, celebrates the best of Irish produce from the land and sea (making vegetarian choices limited) and the quality of the dry-aged beef from County Longford and the lamb from County Wexford is excellent. The dining space is an open-plan, airy one and, as with the bedrooms, floor-to-ceiling windows maximize natural light.
A literary touch to Afternoon Tea at Anantara The Marker
The indoor pool is generously sized at over 20 metres and at the Anantara Spa, another highlight, treatments harness ocean plants and there’s a choice of massages and a wide range of facials. Ireland’s literary culture is feted at The Marker with its unique Afternoon Tea. A gloriously colourful array of cakes is part of a multi-coursed, three-hour affair where literary moments are folded into the food and drink. This is no ordinary afternoon tea: come with a thirst for Ireland’s literary culture and an appetite for more than scones and cream.
Ireland’s culture is steeped in music and song and this finds exuberant salutations in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. It can take on a carnival atmosphere at weekends and maybe is better experienced on a quieter mid-week evening, before or after a meal somewhere more sedate. Lemon & Duke is a sound bet with tables outside in the shade.
My companion’s eye was drawn to a Chablis on the wine list and hailed the gambas with cod and I was pleased at finding vegan starters, main dishes and desserts – infinitely preferable to queuing up for a table at touristy places on nearby Grafton Street.
Relaxing, far from Temple Bar’s maddening crowds, at Ruby Molly
Ruby Molly is a new hotel across the River Liffey, less than a ten-minute walk from Temple Bar but miles away from its occasional raucousness. Self check-in using a tablet on the desk is painless if preliminaries are already completed online; beds are comfortable, the rooms have a neat design and are not to be denigrated by labelling them funky.
Tea and coffee is self-service from a galley on each floor but there’s a large bar and lounge area in the lobby area where breakfast (if chosen) is served. It’s all very urban chic and hands-off but works very well if most of your time is to be spent outside on a literary safari with the new edition of The Ulysses Guide and its well-charted walking tours. If anything will motivate dipping into Ulysses, it will be walking with this book in hand across the streets of Dublin.
by Sean Sheehan