The Embassy of Ireland, Nigeria was proud to host a private Bloomsday celebration on Sunday, June 16th at 2pm with special guest Prof. Wole Soyinka. Other guests included many leading figures in the Nigerian theatre & arts worlds, including Patrick Doyle and Joke Silva, both of whom have done recorded readings of Ulysses extracts. Ambassador Peter Ryan presented Prof. Soyinka with a canvas of the cover of an upcoming book Trailing A Seaweed Cord – Irish and Nigerian voices on Soyinka’s Notes from Here to my Joyce Class. The guests read their poems. The Irish poets were selected by Poetry Ireland. The book will be launched as part of the Lagos International Poetry Festival in October. The editor of the book is Lagos-based Ms Aduke Gomez, an author of Nigeria, Brazilian and Irish heritage. The book cover was designed by Philadelphia-based Robert Berry, the artist behind Ulysses Seen – the visual adaptation of the novel.
