A New Day Will Be
Department of Foreign Affairs and MoLI
Marking a Bloomsday like no other
With the whole planet in a time of crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, our video with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Museum of Literature Ireland virtually gathered together performers from more than 40 countries and six continents to send a message of hope. A mammoth exercise in collaboration, A New Day Will Be articulated a sense of optimism and humanity through shared words carefully selected from James Joyce’s Ulysses, soundtracked by the plaintive violin of Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and the ambient sounds of empty cities.
Context
To create that all-important narrative arc, the quotations we selected were universal, contemporary, and evoked the shared global experience of a one-worldness, of humanity separately and together living through those days of crisis.
“A little trouble about those white corpuscles. Silence, all.”
“Life is many days, this will end.”
“Touch me. Soft eyes. Soft soft hand. I am lonely here.”
“Living all day among herbs, ointments, disinfectants.”
“Love loves to love love”.
“But tomorrow is a new day will be”
“yes I said yes I will Yes.”
“I wanted then to have now concluded. Nightdress was never. Hence this. But tomorrow is a new day will be. Past was is today. What now is will then tomorrow as now was be past yester.” – Leopold Bloom in James Joyce’s Ulysses, Episode 15: Circe
