Aidan Gillen on how Ulysses was the Never Mind The Bollocks of its day

Hot Press would like to wish a very Happy Bloomsday to all, and offer this reminder from actor Aidan Gillen that Ulysses was greeted with the same establishment disdain in 1992 as Never Mind The Bollocks was some 55 years later.

"There’s a lot of reverential treatment and establishment approved abound for something that was the punk of its day – banned and not very rewarding financially and almost impossible to publish," he reflects. "No one else could have done it of course, but it’s not precious, it’s Dublin street talk and street life through a double genius filter and then a further white wine filter over a twenty year period or something like that. I should read it..."

Saturday June 20 finds Aidan joining the likes of Shane MacGowan, John Turturro, Patrick Bergin, Ian McElhinney, Colin Quinn, Kieran O'Reilly, Spider Stacy, Barry Ward, Billy Carter, Theo Dorgan and Paula Meehan for the Bloomsday Lock-In, a contemporary re-working of Ulysses that's taking place in lieu of the annual Bloomsday In Brooklyn literary pub crawl, which has fallen victim to Covid-19. The 50-strong cast will be beaming in from Tipperary, Limerick, Galway, Belfast, Dublin, London, Strasbourg, Paris, Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles.

Laoisa Sexton, the actress and Bloomsday Lock-In co-director, also feels that Ulysses is ripe for a modern tweaking.
"It's the wordplay for me, yummy things to get your tongue around," she enthuses. "I was introduced to it first as an actress performing Gerty and Molly. But I always hated the way they stick the women in at the end of these readings for a bit of titillation, or an afterthought. Women feature so heavily throughout the book. Molly hangs over the proceedings like a cool, soft, all-knowing cloud, you can feel her everywhere – 'Night Sky moon, the colour of Molly's new garters.' But I hate all the piety and the holy devotion to the book – it's modern and can be interpreted anyway you want. In reading it and working on this project, I realised it really is a true celebration of women - and sure, like, just in case no one has mentioned it lately, if it wasn't for three women it would not even be published. The fact that he was never published or validated or supported during his lifetime by his own people (the Irish) who dismissed his work initially speaks volumes about Ireland itself. He was a true outsider, I wonder what he would think now of all those straw hats?"

Another Bloomsday Lock-In participant, actress and playwright Elizabeth Moynihan, also attests to James Joyce's punk rock credentials.
"Ulysses gave the Catholic Church the finger and let the world know that Irish women fucked and liked it," she enthuses.

The modern adaptation of Ulysses will screen for one week only, with proceeds going to the CHiPS Soup Kitchen and Women's Shelter. You can donate at https://give.chipsonline.org/give/288238/#!/donation/checkout
To watch Bloomsday Lock-In log on to http://www.tenthousandhours.ie/bloomsday-lockin
Hot Press would also like to add to the Joycean punk theme with this little ditty: