Dubliners: Joys of Reading

## Details

The title of the event is a paradox! Read in silence and then discuss with like-minded folks! :-)

📝 How does this work?

We will meet in the Bartley's Restaurant area from 7:00 PM to 8:15 PM for silent reading and followed up by discussion. During silent reading, you're expected to remain silent and read. Please bring your headphones and refrain from the discussion during the first one hour in the area.

👥 Socialising

After an hour, at 8:15 PM, we'll discuss and socialize about the book you're reading. We highly encourage you to move between tables and strike up conversations with fellow book lovers. These discussions about literature and reading recommendations are often the highlight of the event!

Feel free to join at any point during the event.

The event is indoors, hopefully, we can continue the tradition of the silent reading in the winter!

📌 Helpful Tips and Notes

• Bring headphones to block out surrounding noise
• I will post a comment on the event page when I arrive to indicate where we're seated, so everyone can find us
• If you prefer to skip the silent reading, you can join directly at the bar at 8:15 PM

⚠️Something Happened?
If something unpleasant happened to you, it may happen to others. It may be small but don't hesitate to reach out to me.

Looking forward to meeting you all 😊

📚 James Joyce’s Ulysses turns an ordinary Dublin day into an expansive exploration of consciousness, memory, and identity, making Bloomsday (June 16th) a celebration of both the city and the inner lives of its inhabitants. Following Leopold Bloom’s wanderings, readers are invited to see the epic in the everyday, where small gestures carry profound emotional weight. Joyce’s broader body of work—including Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man—offers rich ground for discussion, tracing his evolving style and deepening preoccupation with language, identity, and modern life. Bloomsday, observed each June 16th, transforms literature into lived experience, as readers retrace Bloom’s steps and immerse themselves in Joyce’s richly textured world.

Let's grab a drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) and discuss books by Joyce, on Joyce, on Ulysses — whether poetry, fiction, or non-fiction. Bring your physical book or e-reader.

There's no formal structure or agenda—just books and good conversation.💬

It's a perfect place to get book recommendations and rediscover your reading momentum if you've hit a slump. We welcome readers of all backgrounds and interests!

⚠️Something Happened?
If something unpleasant happened to you, it may happen to others. Even if it seems minor, don't hesitate to reach out to me.

🔍 How to find us?

• When I reach the venue, I'll leave a comment in the meetup where the group is seated. Normally, the booking is in my name, so you can ask the staff for the group.
• If you're unable to find us, leave a comment in the meetup page. I'll be able to guide you.

We highly encourage you to move between tables and strike up conversations with fellow book lovers. These discussions about literature and reading recommendations are often the highlight of the event!

As an organizer, I'm always looking for feedback about the event and suggestions for new events, so feel free to suggest ideas to me. 💡
I look forward to seeing you all! 😊

🎟️ Attendance is free but booking is essential.

Join us for an afternoon of poetry from award-winning writers Annelise Berghenti, Lily Blacksell and Rosamund Taylor. Themes will range from womanhood to the natural world; the everyday to the extraordinary, in a mixture of new work and recently published poems from Lily Blacksell’s collection Life Immediately (Bloodaxe, 2026), and Rosamund Taylor’s verse novel Filly (Banshee Press, 2025). Jessica Traynor, fellow Bloodaxe poet and Poetry Editor at Banshee, will introduce the event.

#### ABOUT THE POETS

ROSAMUND TAYLOR is the winner of the Rialto Poetry Prize 2025, the Telegraph Poetry Prize 2023, The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2020 and the Mairtín Crawford Award for Poetry 2017. In 2023, her debut collection, In Her Jaws (Banshee Press 2022), was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for a First Collection and the Yeats Society Poetry Prize, and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Her essays have recently appeared in The Irish Times and The Stinging Fly, and her poems have featured in Butcher’s Dog, Magma, Mslexia, Poetry Ireland Review and on BBC Radio 4 and RTE Radio 1. Filly, her novel in verse, was published by Banshee last year.
LILY BLACKSELL is a poet living in London. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Review, BOMB Magazine, Bath Magg, Poetry London, Poetry Wales and elsewhere. She runs a poetry and music night called Canon Fodder. Her two pamphlets are There’s No Such Thing (ignition press) and Stressed, Tested (Rough Trade Books). Her first full-length collection, Life Immediately, is published by Bloodaxe Books.
ANNELISE BERGHENTI is a poet living in Dublin, where she grew up. She has an MFA in poetry from Columbia University and her poems have been published by Banshee, Headstuff, Rainbow Agate, and other publications.