Dublin rejoices with Bloomsday celebrations

Dublin: On sunny North Great Georges Street yesterday morning, the international television crews had difficulty keeping each other out of their shots as they scampered up and down the street, filming the Bloomsday crowds that gathered from 8 a.m.

Some 1,800 people turned up to queue for an alfresco breakfast roll, pint of Guinness, and street entertainment in the form of theatre and readings.

Some of the punters arrived in Edwardian costume, complete with that period accessory, the mobile phone.

Others, such as Joycean fan from Phoenix, Arizona, retired accountant Don Erickson, wore more contemporary dress: his t-shirt read, somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot.

Four friends from Seattle, waiting for their breakfast, Peggy and Rick Meyer, and Jeanene and Stan Laegreid had travelled to Ireland specially for Bloomsday. Stan Laegreid collects special editions and translations of Ulysses: he has 19 translated versions, including ones in Chinese, Korean, Swedish and Russia, along with 20-plus other rare editions in English. He might have over 40 copies of the famous book, but he admits that he still hasn't actually read it: "It doesn't make any difference what language it's in, I still wouldn't understand it," he confessed.

"I'm not sure if I'd describe Bloomsday in Ireland as commercial," said Jeanene Laegreid, looking around her at the woman whose costume composed of a brass bed, worn around her waist, "but it sure is a bit of a circus." Leo O'Mahony from Cork also travelled to Dublin specially for Bloomsday.

"I haven't read the whole book, but I've read the lushest parts," he explained. "Those Molly Bloom bits, now they're easy to understand."

Angela Devlin, originally from Belfast and living in Australia for 32 years, had come back for the week-long Bloomsday celebrations and had brought 10 friends and Joyce fans with her.

The group were recognisable by their black t-shirts, which bore Molly Bloom's famous words: and yes I said yes I will yes.

Inside the James Joyce Centre, an invited audience sat down to a somewhat posher breakfast, where the rashers and sausages were served up on china rather than paper. Among those at breakfast was Patrick Thomas, cultural and scientific counsellor with the French Embassy, who was intending to buy a new copy of Ulysses to mark the day.

"I gave my old one to the actress Jeanne Moreau when I took her to the Martello Tower at Sandycove when she was here two years ago," he explained.

President McAleese turned up for breakfast in the Joyce Centre just before 10 a.m. She then went upstairs to hear some of the actors, personalities, and musicians who were reading and performing work from and about Joyce.

The readings were broadcast via a link-up to a large screen out on the street.

Talking the book: page 14

The Irish Times special Bloomsday supplement is available online at www.ireland.com/events/bloomsday.