Ulysses 100 - James Joyce’s pioneering novel and its hidden ties to Hungary

The story starts and ends on 16 June 1904, the day Joyce met his life-long love, Nora Barnacle. They fled Ireland together that October and eventually settled in Trieste, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was probably where Joyce became acquainted with the local Hungarian circle.

Joyce also taught English to naval officers in nearby Pula, another Habsburg port, where later Hungarian leader, Miklós Horthy, attended as a student. Although there is no concrete evidence that Joyce and Horthy crossed paths, speculation suggests they did.

Joyce himself almost certainly never visited Budapest or Szombathely, although he linked the main character in Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, to the provincial city where his father Rudolph was born. Szombathely is now the epicentre of Hungary’s Joycean activities.

Leopold Bloom’s father, originally Rudolf Virág, was a Szombathely Jew who emigrated to Dublin where he started his family, changing his name to Rudolph Bloom. This surname is rendered in Hungarian by the word virág, signifying the same term. This Jewish link is revisited in the episode in Ulysses known as Cyclops.

Bloom meets a character in a Dublin pub referred to as ‘The Citizen’ who doesn’t regard Bloom as Irish, but he rather despises him because of his origins.


Moreover, it is at this juncture that Joyce introduces Hungarian expressions in a grammatically incorrect way. While this may be interpreted as the writer mocking the language for its notable difficulty, legend has it that in the first edition published in Paris a century ago, which Joyce had control over, the Hungarian was perfectly correct.

However, Joyce translator and lecturer on Irish literature at the University of Debrecen, Dr Marianna Gula comments:

The original version may well have contained incorrect Hungarian expressions. As first editions from the 1,000 printed in 1922 are among the most highly prized in literature, selling for $40,000-$75,000, a signed one for well over $100,000, it’s a Joycean mystery to find out what was actually committed to paper.


Sadly, the author took the secret to his grave. Perhaps Hungary’s Joyce obsession is supported by the fact that it’s been translated into Hungarian four times, producing a slightly more concise adaptation for local understanding each time.

Irish nationalism underscores the novel. Back then, Ireland faced with the same kind of oppression as Hungary had suffered before the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867.


Griffith perhaps looked somewhat enviously at Hungary’s flourishing dual monarchy, and wished to negotiate something similar for Ireland, too. His role model was the Hungarian politician, Ferenc Deák, who helped Hungary achieve its equal status with Austria. Irish and Hungarian connections, thinks Professor McAteer, are even more deeply embedded into Ulysses.

Endless debates surround Joyce’s choice of Szombathely, but research proves that there was indeed a Jewish family named Blum in the town, reveals Professor McAteer. Their address was Fő tér 40-41, which means that they were a somewhat wealthy family living on the main square.


At the time, Szombathely had a large Jewish population for its size and most probably, Joyce heard about a few families while mingling in Hungarian circles in Trieste. Today, Szombathely numbers only 40 Jewish residents, but has preserved Rudolph Bloom’s memory. In the centre of Szombathely stands a bronze statue of Joyce, erected in 2004, and for nearly 30 years one of their main cultural events is the Bloomsday festival. 

Szombathely is currently hosting Europe’s largest outdoor exhibition, a mural project depicting various episodes in Ulysses. Each year, two Hungarian artists create artwork displayed the walls of central Szombathely. For the centenary celebrations of 2022, an Irish artist will continue the sequence by painting the fifth episode in the book.

Bloom’s character has inspired other initiatives here, too. Apart from the Hungarian James Joyce Society, there is also a Leopold Bloom, LP Award, honouring artists working within the Joycean world. 

The book took a while to get to Hungary. After Sylvia Beach, owner of Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company, commissioned the first 1,000 copies to be printed on 2 February 1922, Ulysses was published in London that October. It wasn’t until 1929 that it reached America, despite pressure from the Vice Squad outraged at certain passages. The first major UK publication dates back to 1936.


The first Hungarian translation was in 1947, after which Joyce was banned by the Communist authorities. The novel is now considered one of the most influential works of Modernist literature. 

While the novel is unmistakeably linked to Greek mythology, it’s written in a way that captures the styles of different periods of English literature. Despite provoking an obscenity trial in the United States and censure in Socialist Hungary, it’s no exaggeration to say that Ulysses has conquered the modern world, overcoming all linguistic obstacles and foreign borders.

For more about Hungarian-Irish cultural connections, see our interview with the Irish ambassador to Hungary, Ronan Gargan. 

Ulysses events in Hungary

A literary evening takes place at 7pm today, 2 February, at the Nyitott Műhely, 1123 Budapest, Ráth György utca 4, held by the Irish Embassy

A talk about Joyce and Hungarian connections to Ulysses will be held on 22 February at the Art Café in Szombathely. For details of Bloomsday events on 16 June, see here

Today also see the Hungarian-language publication of a scholarly work on Ulysses by Dr Marianna Gula 

Pula will be hosting a special Bloomsday event in June