Kathleen Fee - Bloomsday Montreal 2023
b'Forty percent of Qu\\xe9becers have some Irish ancestry. Honouring the history of Irish immigration to Montr\\xe9al, the festival celebrates Irish Montr\\xe9al, its culture and literature. Year after year, the Bloomsday Montr\\xe9al Festival boosts local pride and community spirit, and raises awareness of the diversity and dynamism of culture and identity within our community. The exploration of a hard-won place for immigrants in the new Canadian culture threads through each year\\u2019s program. Talented artists and musicians, music, walking tours, films,documentaries, lectures and readings from Irish literature \\u2013 especially Joyce\\u2019s Ulysses \\u2014 show us how it really was and how Irish heritage shaped the city we know today. In this way, even as part of a larger international celebration, our Bloomsday is a uniquely Montr\\xe9al event. The first Bloomsday Montr\\xe9al Festival was a three-day event held in June 2012. Administered by the McGill School for Continuing Studies, many key Montr\\xe9al educational and cultural institutions participated in its first success.'