Welcome to our annual Bloomsday competition, open to anyone under 18, with prizes for primary school and second level entrants! Read on to learn what’s involved and how to submit an entry.
What to write
James Joyce was an Irish writer who wrote a very famous book called Ulysses. The story takes place over a single day, June 16th, 1904. Every year, fans of Joyce and Ulysses celebrate the book on Bloomsday (named after the main character, Leopold Bloom). For Bloomsday 2025, we would like YOU to write a short story of no more than 500 words. Like Ulysses, it should take place in a single day, but with a twist. Use this painting below, Shapeshifter by Diana Copperwhite, as your starting point. Then, let your imagination run free and describe the day. If you are stuck for ideas, we’ve some suggestions below to get you started, but it is up to you to decide what you’d like to write.
Ideas Lab
You can write whatever you want, but if you’d like a few ideas, here goes:
- Look at the painting from the outside. What do you see? Why do you notice that? What more can you find out?
- Imagine you are inside the painting. What is happening? What can you hear/see/smell/taste? How do you feel, and why? What were you doing, and what happens next?
- Think of where the painting might be located. Where is it? Are you there? Is there anyone else there with the painting? Why are they there, what are they doing and how are they feeling?
If you prefer, you can even submit your entry in the form of a storyboard. You can map out the key events in your story by illustrating them.
How to submit entries
As authors must be under 18, they cannot submit their own work. Entries must be emailed by a teacher or responsible adult, with appropriate parental permission. Do not include the entries in the main body of the email. Send them as an attached file (e.g., a Word document or PDF) to eeivers@museumofchildhood.ie.
Each attached file must include:
- the story itself.
- the writer’s first name, age and their location (county or country).
Make sure you do not include any other author identification details in the file. In the email itself, the adult submitting must:
- confirm that the story is original, and that it is the work of the author.
- tell us if the author is attending a primary or a second level school.
- provide contact and personal details for the adult submitting the story.
If you are a teacher submitting on behalf of some of your class, you only need to confirm originality once, for all entries submitted. Please also include your school name and roll number. This information will be used to identify prize-winning schools.
We will announce our overall winner and finalists on June 16th, 2025. All finalists will be invited to an Awards Ceremony in Marsh’s Library, Dublin in September.
Rules and more information
See below for a quick summary of the main rules, or click the link lower down for full details.
- Deadline is Noon, May 16th 2025 and the author must be under 18 on that date.
- Entries that exceed 500 words, or include defamatory, distressing, or inappropriate content will not be accepted.
- Each entry should only include the writer’s first name, age, and approximate location (county in Ireland / country if outside Ireland). Contact details for a responsible adult are collected separately.
Full terms and conditions of the competition: https://museumofchildhood.ie/writing-art-project-2020-terms-and-conditions/
Governance: https://museumofchildhood.ie/governance/