The lads in the photo above are the original Bloomsday boys of summer. On June 16th 1954, John Ryan, Anthony Cronin, Brian O'Nolan, Patrick Kavanagh and Tom Joyce met up outside James Joyce's birthplace in Rathgar and went on to visit places synonymous with the writer and Ulysses, including Sandymount Strand, and various pubs. As Barry Houlihan notes, it was far from the illustrious city and countrywide celebration of Ulysses it has since become. In fact, it was fairly underwhelming as debuts go. "Our expedition on that June day 1954 got scant courtesy from many people who are now deeply involved in Bloomsday", wrote Kavanagh in the RTÉ Guide at a later stage. "Numbers of well know publicists appeared on the scene to have a good laugh at us". https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0612/1518012-bloomsday-1964-history-dublin-james-joyce-ulysses/