San Franciscans pack Muni to honor dead Irish author, urban planner
Stately, mum Forest Hill Station is typically void of noise on early Tuesday afternoons, but when the elevator spread open its doors at the ground level this week, public transit riders encountered an unusually crowded concourse. An Irish poet recited prose into a microphone as the station's sides blossomed with wallflowers stoically listening in, many clutching a book, some clutching the book of the hour.
Erick Sewell and Kyle Vandenberg smiled from off to the side, each holding dog-eared and bookmarked copies of "Ulysses."
"We've been watching the faces of people getting off the elevator," Sewell said.
"Some of them might go home and Google 'What is "Ulysses,"'" Vandenberg added.
Bloomsday was underway in San Francisco. The literary holiday honored James Joyce's singular novel, which occurs entirely on June 16. A modern twist on "The Odyssey," the tome's popular protagonist, Leopold Bloom, sacrifices a return home to instead relish the inner organs of Dublin. Not always celebrated for how it champions community, "Ulysses" telepathically transmits the reader into the minds of Irish folk who cross paths like daily commuters aboard Muni.
Pairing up to honor heritage and transit, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Consulate General of Ireland in San Francisco co-presented Bloomsday and Beyond on Tuesday. The moving panel of storytellers and historians started downtown near Powell Street Station and traveled west to the United Irish Cultural Center, with stops on the way off the L Taraval line.
Sewell and Vandenberg have traveled as far as Dublin to celebrate Bloomsday, but now, the Sunset residents were only a short train ride from celebrating a favorite read. "Not many people would take PTO for Bloomsday," Sewell laughed.
At Forest Hill Station, Irish poet and Fulbright scholar Julie Morrissy spoke first, followed by Kat Siegal and Sarah Katz-Hyman from the Muni Diaries. Siegal noted how riding transit often spurs the quintessential Joycean experience of delving into an inner monologue.
Toward the back, a table of new books from Irish authors were available for the taking. There were titles from Joyce and Sally Rooney, along with "Pooka," a contemporary children's book of old Irish folktales. (To the dismay of Bloom, no copy of "Sweets of Sin" was among the stacks.)
Before reaching the United Irish Cultural Center in the Outer Sunset, the traveling readers would first pass McCoppin Square Park, named in honor of the city's first Irish-born mayor: Frank McCoppin (1867-69). The event not only centered on Bloom and "Ulysses" but was an opportunity for celebrating the Irish legacy in San Francisco - namely Michael O'Shaughnessy.
SFMTA called the Irish-born city engineer the visionary who created Muni. His surname appears throughout the city on a bus line, a boulevard and the tap water, which passes through O'Shaughnessy Dam as part of the Hetch Hetchy regional water system.
As it was a day for books: Paul Bignardi, a planner for SFMTA, also mentioned "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro. The biography is of Robert Moses, the most consequential urban planner in New York City history.
"As powerful O'Shaughnessy was, Moses was much more powerful," Bignardi said. "One key difference: Moses did not involve public transportation. O'Shaughnessy seemed to understand the concept of public benefit."
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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 7:17 PM.