San Francisco Celebrates Bloomsday With Literary Ride on the L Taraval

Mayor Lurie, the Irish Consul General, and city leaders launched a first-of-its-kind literary activation aboard the L Taraval streetcar on June 16, honoring the city's deep Irish roots and the immigrant engineer who built much of its transit system. The Bloomsday and Beyond celebration brought together diplomacy, transit, and neighborhood libraries in a cultural partnership stretching from downtown to the ocean.

• Irish Consulate, SFMTA, and SF Public Library partner to bring books and storytelling aboard the L Taraval
• Mayor Lurie honors Michael O'Shaughnessy, the Irish immigrant who built the Twin Peaks Tunnel and expanded Muni
• Supervisor Wong advances an Irish Cultural District in the Sunset
• Supervisor Chen shares personal immigration story about getting lost on Muni as a newcomer

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Books on the Bus: A Literary Partnership Rides the L Taraval

San Francisco marked Bloomsday — the date on which James Joyce's Ulysses is set — by turning one of the city's busiest streetcar lines into a rolling literary festival. The event brought together the Irish Consulate, SFMTA, and the San Francisco Public Library in a partnership to place books, stories, and cultural programming directly aboard the L Taraval.

Why it matters: The activation models a new kind of civic-cultural collaboration, using public transit as a platform for arts engagement while strengthening San Francisco's sister-city relationship with Cork, Ireland. It also spotlights neighborhood institutions along the route — the West Portal and Parkside branch libraries and the city's bookmobile — at a time when cities nationwide are looking for ways to boost library usage and transit ridership simultaneously.

Where things stand: Mayor Daniel Lurie opened the press conference by grounding the celebration in history, pointing to Michael O'Shaughnessy, an Irish immigrant who served as San Francisco's city engineer in the early 1900s and designed the Twin Peaks Tunnel, a critical piece of infrastructure that still connects the east and west sides of the city.

"In the early 1900s, Michael O'Shaughnessy, an Irish immigrant and San Francisco city engineer, designed a complex network of Muni lines throughout San Francisco. With intention and efficiency, he built the Twin Peaks Tunnel to connect the east and west sides of our city," said Mayor Lurie.

The mayor also highlighted the city's ongoing diplomatic ties: "Through our sister city relationship with Cork, we foster educational, economic and community ties that enrich both cities. Ireland is not only part of San Francisco's history, it remains an important part of our future."

Consul General Michal Smith framed the event as part of Ireland's global literary tradition, citing Nobel laureates W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney. He described the Muni partnership as an effort to bring storytelling beyond libraries and classrooms and into everyday life.

"Books, stories, conversations will travel through the city, through the L Taraval. We want to bring literature out onto the streets, beyond libraries, beyond classrooms and beyond the bookshelves, and to place it in everyday lives of the people of this great city," said Consul General Smith.

He drew a broader connection between San Francisco and Ireland: "Both value creativity, innovation and learning. Both understand the importance of public spaces, public institutions and public culture. And both recognize that stories matter."

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The Sunset's Irish Roots — and a New Cultural District

Supervisor Alan Wong, who represents the Sunset District, described months of work advancing an Irish Cultural District in the neighborhood, alongside Irish community leaders and organizations including the United Irish Cultural Center, which hosts an Irish Summer Camp.

"For many of us in the Sunset, the L is woven into everyday life. I grew up taking the L. It carries students to school, workers to their jobs, families to gatherings and visitors to local businesses. Today, the same route serves as a pathway for storytelling," said Supervisor Wong.

Why it matters: San Francisco has designated cultural districts as tools for preserving neighborhood identity and directing city resources — from the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District in the Mission to the Japantown Cultural District. An Irish Cultural District in the Sunset would formalize the neighborhood's longstanding ties to Irish-American community life and potentially unlock preservation and programming support.

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A Personal Story on Muni

Supervisor Cheyenne Chen offered one of the event's most personal moments, recounting her first day in San Francisco as an immigrant. She boarded Muni to get to Galileo High School but didn't realize the system ran in two directions — and got lost.

"With my spoken English I was lost, and then with the empathy, with the compassion, with the care of our San Francisco residents, I was able to redirect and back to another opposite side of the Muni system and get back home," said Supervisor Chen.

She connected that experience to the broader theme of the day, arguing that cultural activations on transit reflect why San Francisco stands apart: "Everybody who's riding Muni, whether you're a student, whether you're an immigrant, whether you're a worker, whether you are a senior — you have very unique stories that you can share and help the story continue to shape why San Francisco is a world-class city."

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Transit and Libraries: The Infrastructure Behind the Celebration

SFMTA Director Julie Kirschbaum noted that the L Taraval corridor has been running better than ever since its reopening in 2024, and credited O'Shaughnessy's engineering legacy — including the Twin Peaks Tunnel — as foundational to the route.

City Librarian Michael Lambert promoted the neighborhood branches along the line and a curated Bloomsday book list featuring contemporary Irish authors including Sally Rooney, Colm Toibín, Maggie O'Farrell, and Tana French. He offered a playful literary note: "If Leopold Bloom had made his meandering journey through San Francisco instead of Dublin, he would have no choice but to stumble across many of our neighborhood libraries and our bookmobiles that dot every corner of our fair city."

The event concluded with Consul General Smith presenting books to Mayor Lurie and Chief of Protocol Penny Coulter before attendees boarded the L Taraval for the literary ride across the city.

What's next: The Bloomsday literary activation rides the L Taraval, with books and programming available at the West Portal and Parkside branch libraries and on the city's bookmobile. The emerging Irish Cultural District in the Sunset will continue to take shape as Supervisor Wong works with community organizations and city leadership.