Bloomsday Bloomsday Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his novel "Ulysses" takes place in 1904, the date of his first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom. The English compound word "Bloomsday" is usually used in Irish as well, though some publications call it . The first mention of such a celebration is to be found in a letter by Joyce to Miss Weaver of 27 June 1924, which refers to "a group of people who
Races and creatures in His Dark Materials Gallivespians are Lord Roke, commander of the spies in Lord Asriel's Adamant Tower, the central fortress for the rebellion, and Madame Oxentiel, who succeeds to Lord Roke's position after his death. The name "Gallivespian" echoes that of the gall wasp. The word gall means both an abnormal outgrowth and is a synonym for impudence or bile, whilst "vespa" is Latin for "wasp". The name also recalls the protagonist of "Gulliver's Travels", who encounters a world of tiny people. Cliff-ghasts are the more prominent type of ghasts in "His Dark Materials". Since many of the characters grow up in the same