About JJ21K

jj21k

This site contains my research into James Joyce, his writing, life and his locations. Everything on the site gets updated, the content changes as I learn more, and please feel free to make suggestions, and yes, corrections.

The genesis of the site is that in 2014, I thought of creating a Bloomsday run.

People celebrate Bloomsday in a variety of ways. Some read parts of Ulysses, some recreate scenes, some dress up and eat a gorgonzola sandwich washed down with some burgundy at Davy Byrne’s, and doubtless some have an assignation at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, though probably not at 7 Eccles Street.

I wanted to go for a run. But where?

You could pretty run anywhere in Dublin, but why not run from the Tower in Sandycove to Glasnevin Cemetery? It’s about the right distance at 21k, give or take, and there is enough interesting Joyce content along the way. So I ran stretches of it in training and developed what I think is an interesting run. The route was designed to be both entertaining for runners, and also have enough content to make it interesting to readers. Joyce wove his own life and experiences into the stories he wrote and the route interlinks places that Joyce lived, learnt and loved in.

The route starts in the south and works its way north. In this way, it mirrors Joyce’s move from the south of Dublin City and into the north inner city. This journey is mapped in A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and it also follows the principal direction of the narrative in Ulysses, which like the run, begins at the Tower at Sandycove.

You can read about the Ulysses 21k here.

Since setting and running the Ulysses 21k course I have made numerous other runs and I started a WordPress blog. I developed a 21k run for each of Joyce’s major works and you can find them all here. I developed a series of other runs about themes that I discovered in Joyce’s work and created some looped runs that you might like to try.

In 2020 I asked my friends at the design agency Unthink to take my WordPress Blog and turn it into the website that you see here. In tandem, I launched a YouTube Channel jj21k where I hope to create a range of videos to go along with the articles on the site. I also got more seriously into running, I had to in order to complete the Finnegans Wake 21k as I had to run out from Dublin and over Howth Head and as part of this project I created another YouTube channel dedicated to running as an older runner, OldManRunner.

If you would like me to look at any aspects of Joyce’s work or have any suggestions then please feel free to email me at editor@jj21k.com.

I am sure there are mistakes in these texts if you notice any I am happy to be advised, the beauty of articles like this is that I can amend and update them, which I frequently do.

Discover Dublin by reading and running.