Have you seen Phil Conners golfing around Ireland?

A bit of a long shot here and I'm very unlikely to land this one on the green but I have just spent the last hour trying to contact Fáilte Ireland to see if they can put me in touch with Bill Murray's people or make him aware of The Groundhog Challenge.

Basically, The Groundhog Challenge aims to encourage people like myself to finish Ulysses by February 2nd 2022 and to encourage others to at least pick it up by Groundhog Day which is not only the centenary celebration of the publication of Ulysses but it was also published on Joyce's 40th birthday so I am trying to hit two birds with one stone and celebrate Joyce's 140th anniversary as well as trying to read Ulysses in the 100 days before the 100th anniversary. Those who have already read it, can post selfies with their book of course.

Groundhog Day was probably not well known outside of Punxatawny, Philedelphia before Bill Murray's comedy classic in 1993 so why not pair Joyce with Murray as one spends a day travelling around Dublin on Bloomsday which we celebrate every year, and the other relives the same day over and over again until he gets the girl and learns life's lessons?

While I try to hit two birds with one stone, I am sure the Caddyshack star is trying for a birdie and promoting Ireland as a golfing destination with his new series The Links Life.

I tried contacting Fáilte Ireland through their website but when I wrote my message, it said I could only use a maximum of 400 characters and I found myself removing all punctuation (like Joyce) and a couple of paragraphs in an attempt to get the message off to them.

I think I should try contacting Tom Coyne on Twitter as I probably have as many characters to explain the idea of this challenge. Tom Coyne is a writer and English professor in Punxsutawney, Pennyslavania, sorry in Philedelphia Pennyslavania and has had "Fore" very successful books all about golf including the bestseller A Course Called Ireland.

I believe Coyne's travelled around Ireland playing a round and that he played 36 courses in the 32 counties as he made his way around the perimeter of the Republic and Northern Ireland, without the use of any transportation. Fair play.

Everyone would love to see Bill Murray holding a copy of Ulysses for The Groundhog Day Challenge and I imagine his character finished all of Joyce´s books in his endless time loop in the film so if you see, "PHIL, PHIL CONNERS" golfing around Ireland, ask him if he will do The Groundhog Day Challenge and hope that he doesn't "NED" you in the face.

I hope Bill Murray enjoyed playing a round Ireland and that the sun shone on his stay but if by any chance he has always wanted to finish Ulysses then maybe he wants to take up the Groundhog Day Challenge and share a selfie with his copy of Joyce's epic with the good people in Fáilte Ireland.

"NOBODY IS GOING TO BELIEVE YOU"

Keep sending me your selfies with your books and shelfies of your bookshelves too but remember if you did see Bill Murray playing golf around Ireland, nobody is going to believe you.

SHELFIES

A shout out to Eugenia in Uruguay who sent me a fantastic picture of her bookshelf full of Joyce's work.

She thinks she has all the copies of Ulices and I know I will have to pick up a copy of Ulices to add to my small collection of books but I can't see myself reading Ulysses in Spanish, just yet even though I hear frequent verses read in Spanish at the Bloomsday Society in Madrid's monthly readings.

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