Senator David Norris during Bloomsday celebrations this morning. Source: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

SENATOR DAVID NORRIS has made an appearance at the Bloomsday celebrations in Dublin despite only recently having undergone a liver transplant.

He said the operation was “very successful”, although he is still feeling “a bit feeble”.

“I had a little rejection episode last week, so they took me again for a few days,” Norris told The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk, “but I’m out and about again now.”

He spoke of how before he underwent the transplant, surgery was performed to stop a tumour from blocking an artery.

“While they were doing tests, they hadn’t discovered [the cancer yet], and I got this violent pain. They went in, and apparently the tumours were choking an artery.”

I said to the surgeon afterwards that I felt I had a 30% chance going in there, and he said ‘if that’.

The senator began treatment for liver cancer last year.

“I have no difficulty in making this information public in response to press queries because I believe that there should be no stigma attaching to cancer as a disease,” he said when he revealed his illness.

Norris is said to have brought James Joyce back to the forefront of Irish culture, and noted the novelist was originally seen as “a bad catholic, a bad Irishman… he outraged society”.

Watch: Senator asks RTÉ payout recipients to ‘give the money back’ >

Previously: Senator David Norris seriously ill with cancer >