Who is Milly Bloom in Ulysses?
Milly Bloom is Leopold and Molly's daughter, who turns fifteen on 15 June 1904. She is working in a photographer's shop in Mullingar, and her chatty letter arrives with the morning post in Episode 4. Bloom worries about her and a young student she has met.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Bloom, sorting the morning post in Calypso.
—A letter for me from Milly, he said carefully, and a card to you.
What it means in plain English
Her letter thanks her father for a birthday present and mentions Bannon, a young student, and Boylan's song “Seaside Girls”.
Bloom is protective; he thinks about visiting her in Mullingar.
Literary context
Milly never appears in person; she is present only in letters and memories.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 4, 6, 14, 17 and 18
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
What does Milly do in Mullingar?
She works for a photographer.
Related terms
Rudy Bloom
Rudy Bloom is Leopold and Molly's son, who died at eleven days old, eleven years before the novel. Bloom thinks of him throughout 16 June, and his ghost appears at the end of Circe as an eleven-year-old boy reading a book.
Seaside Girls
“Those Lovely Seaside Girls” is a music-hall song mentioned in Milly's letter in Episode 4: a student has been singing “Boylan's song” about seaside girls. Its catchy lines run through Bloom's head all day, linking Boylan, Milly and Molly.
Molly Bloom
Leopold's wife, a singer, whose long unpunctuated monologue closes the book on the word 'yes.' Joyce's Penelope.