16 Jun 1954*        The first celebration of "Bloom's Day," tracing the steps of the prime character in James Joyce's Ulysses, occurred in Dublin. Participants included John Ryan (literary critic and editor of Envoy magazine), Anthony Cronin (poet & journalist); Brian O'Nolan (aka Flann O'Brien, aka Myles na gCopaleen; novelist and columnist for the Irish Times), Patrick Kavanagh (essayist & poet), and Thomas Joyce (cousin of James Joyce). (Foster, R.; 2000 @ 325) At the time, the Catholic church and state still very much disapproved of James Joyce, and particularly, his Ulysses, later to become recognized as the greatest novel ever written in the English language. Legend has it that their valiant efforts to follow the trail of Leopold Bloom throughout Dublin were incomplete, owing largely to the celebrants' predilection for the pubs included in their itinerary. (Knopf, 1995 @ 173). If you happen to be living in a place where there is no Bloom's Day "event," why not start a new tradition in that place by taking a friend in arm and hoisting a pint to the genius of James Joyce, Arthur Guinness, John Power, and other contributors the wrold around to the bettermant of man?