Today, 13 June, sees the 157th birthday of WB Yeats.

This Thursday 16 June is Bloomsday, a special event this year as 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

For Bloomsday this Thursday Thoor Ballylee celebrates with a special performance of Noramollyannalivialucia: The Muse and Mister Joyce” written by Irish poet Eamon Grennan.

Curlew Theatre Company presents

Noramollyannalivialucia:

The Muse and Mister Joyce

at Yeats’s Tower, Thoor Ballylee

8pm Thursday June 2022

Admission €15. Tickets available on the door: or for bookings phone 091 631436 / 0858620935

This is a solo play for voices based on Nora Barnacle’s life, in which Joyce’s Galway wife Nora is visited by a group of people (the audience) keen for stories about Joyce, and receive some home truths. Extracts from Joyce’s works interweave with Nora’s memories as she composes a portrait of the artist’s wife as an older woman. The play is performed by Curlew Theatre Company with musical interludes by Nicola and Karina Cahill on harp and flute.

Yeats had the idea that Thoor Ballylee might work as an artistic a hub for Irish artists like James Joyce.

So what did Yeats and Joyce have in common?

Only too much, suggests Joe Hassett in his play Wandering Stars, premiered yesterday at Thoor Ballylee. What they had in common artistically is explored further in an essay by Adrian Paterson published this week by Modernist Studies Ireland.

To find out more, come along to Thoor Ballylee this Bloomsday, or any day this summer!

Opening times for Thoor Ballylee

June 2022

Daily 10 am to 5 pm