The Bloomsday pub trail: Dublin on June 16
On June 16, 1904, Leopold Bloom walked across Dublin and into one of the greatest novels in the English language. On June 16, 2026, a reasonable number of people will walk the same streets in Edwardian costume. Here is where to drink.
Bloomsday is one of the stranger annual events in Irish life: a city-wide commemoration of a single fictional day, celebrated with readings, pub crawls, theatrical performances and, crucially, an unusual number of Gorgonzola sandwiches. The Bloomsday Festival 2026 runs from 11 to 16 June, with more than 100 events across the city. The main programme is run by the James Joyce Centre at 35 North Great George's Street on the Northside.
The novel itself is set entirely on June 16, 1904 — the day Joyce first walked out with Nora Barnacle, a fact he celebrated by setting his masterwork on that same date. Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through a single day in Dublin. Several of the specific pubs Bloom enters or passes are still standing. This trail visits all of them, with a detour through a few others that have strong enough claims on the literary Dublin tradition to earn their place.
The trail runs roughly south across the Liffey and back, covering about four kilometres on foot. You could do it in a morning or stretch it to a full day. We'd recommend the latter.
Stop 1: Mulligan's of Poolbeg Street — start with a proper Guinness
Begin here. Mulligan's has been on Poolbeg Street since 1782 and has one of the best reputations for Guinness in the city — not because they do anything special, but because the cellar conditions have stayed right and the staff have been doing the same thing for generations. Joyce references the pub in Dubliners and the connection is real enough that it's the right place to start. Order one pint. Don't rush it.
From Mulligan's, cross Tara Street and walk up to Fleet Street. The Palace Bar is on the right.
Stop 2: The Palace Bar — the literary pub Dublin earned
The Palace opened in 1823 and has spent most of the intervening two centuries being occupied by writers who couldn't afford to be anywhere else. Patrick Kavanagh drank here. Flann O'Brien. Brendan Behan. The Irish Times offices were across the road and the pub became the unofficial canteen for generations of journalists and literary types who found the offices insufficiently comfortable for serious thinking. The Victorian interior — mahogany, mirrors, globe lamps — hasn't been touched in decades, and the current owners have had the sense not to improve it. The Bloomsday Festival uses it for readings most years. Check the James Joyce Centre programme for 2026 timings.
Stop 3: Davy Byrne's — the canonical Bloomsday pub
This is the one. In Chapter 8 of Ulysses — the Lestrygonians episode — Leopold Bloom enters what he calls the "moral pub" on Duke Street. He orders a glass of Burgundy and a Gorgonzola sandwich. The pub has been serving both on Bloomsday since the festival began, and by 13:00 on June 16 the place is full of people in Edwardian dress eating the exact same thing. The interior was redesigned in 1941 and murals from that era (by Cecil ffrench Salkeld, father-in-law of Brendan Behan) still cover the walls. On Bloomsday itself, Davy Byrne's is the centre of gravity for the whole festival — readings on the street outside, costumed regulars spilling onto Duke Street, the works. Get there before noon if you want a seat.
From Duke Street it's a five-minute walk east to Kehoe's, which is the Victorian interior stop on the trail.
Stop 4: Kehoe's — the Victorian interior
Not directly in Ulysses, but impossible to omit from any serious Dublin pub trail. Kehoe's has the best-preserved Victorian interior in the city: original wooden snugs, glass-panelled partitions, the old shelving still behind the bar, the upstairs rooms unchanged since the 1880s. It's a five-minute walk from Davy Byrne's and worth the detour purely as an architectural experience. On Bloomsday 2026 it will be quieter than Davy Byrne's and still full of people who've had the same idea as you.
Stop 5: O'Donoghue's — the evening session
End the trail here for the evening trad session. O'Donoghue's opened in 1934 and the Dubliners — Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Barney McKenna, Ciarán Burke — started playing here in the early 1960s. The framed photographs on the wall document a version of Dublin that's gone but not quite forgotten. Sessions most evenings from 17:30. On Bloomsday it will be full early, so if you've walked from Duke Street you're doing the right thing by heading straight here rather than stopping anywhere else between Kehoe's and Merrion Row.
The full trail at a glance
Mulligan's (Poolbeg St) → The Palace Bar (Fleet St) → Davy Byrne's (Duke St) → Kehoe's (South Anne St) → O'Donoghue's (Merrion Row). Total walking: about 2.5km. Total time if you're doing it properly: all day.
A note on the Bloomsday Festival programme
The James Joyce Centre at 35 North Great George's Street runs the official Bloomsday Festival 2026 programme from 11 to 16 June — over 100 events including readings, theatrical performances, walking tours and the famous Bloomsday breakfast (kidneys included, as per the novel's first chapter). Most events are free. The Centre's website has the full schedule; the pub trail above is independent of the official programme, though several stops overlap. The festival draws a crowd that takes the book seriously, which makes it unusual among literary commemorations and worth experiencing even if you haven't read Ulysses.
If you have read it: Bloom's walk from Eccles Street down to the Liffey and back across the south side takes most of the day. The pub trail above covers the key drinking stops. The rest of the novel is, famously, somewhat harder to follow.
Doing a session in Dublin after Bloomsday? The Dublin city sesh guide has full session times for Smithfield, Temple Bar, Merrion Row and more. Or check what's on tonight.
Dublin city sesh guide →