PARDON the pun, and let's hope James Joyce isn't reading this over anybody's shoulder, but Bloomsday has really blossomed of late. What used to be merely a day long celebration of the day in the life of the Dublin of 1904 which Joyce immortalised in Ulysses has grown into almost a week of Joyce related events, beginning last Saturday with Something In A Distillery, a portrait of the artist's father John Stanislaus Joyce in words and music, and culminating in tomorrow night's elegant Bloomsday Ball.
But that, according to Mark Carleton of the newly refurbished James Joyce Centre in Dublin's North Great George's St, isn't even the half of it. Thanks to the burgeoning international success of Ulysses - which has now been translated into 120 languages - Bloomsday is now celebrated in at least 60 countries. These include such far flung Joycean hots pots as Beijing, where the Chinese translation of Ulysses was launched last year; Barcelona, which last year mounted an exhibition devoted to Joyce's Dublin; Sydney, where a literary award has been established in association with Guinness Australia; and Bangkok, where the St Patrick Society organised a full programme of reading, music and poetry last year.
"What tends to happen in many places," says Mark, "is that the Irish diaspora in each place will get together, maybe rent a restaurant for a day, and do a marathon Ulysses day from the early morning breakfast until about four o'clock the following morning." He adds, a trifle wistfully, that as far as he can gather, generous quantities of alcoholic beverages are distributed, together with civilised conversation of a distinctly stream of consciousness tendency.
Meanwhile, back in Dublin, you may be reading this early enough to catch today's reenactment of Paddy Dignam's Funeral, which takes place at Glasnevin Cemetery at noon when a cortege of 20 horse drawn carriages will carry mourners - decked out in full period costume, naturally - from the James Joyce Centre to the cemetery. A rather morbid event, on the face of it, but remember Joyce's words: "poor little Paddy wouldn't grudge us a laugh". There will doubtless be plenty of the latter when, following the "service", the mourners repair to the Gravediggers pub to honour Paddy's memory with a song, a dance and a pint of stout.
Anybody who is still standing by 5 p.m. might like to take a seat in Bewleys of Grafton Street for Bewleysses, a variety of period entertainments which include a presentation of extracts from Joyce's work by the Joyce impersonator Dermod Lynskey, and A Portrait Of The Artist's Mother, in which Marion McEvoy evokes Mary Jane Joyce in words and music.
And so to Bloomsday itself, which begins with the Guinness Bloomsday Breakfast - vegetarians, eat your hearts out - a feast composed mainly of the inner organs of beasts and fowls, available between 8 and 10 a.m. at the James Joyce Centre. The nutty gizzards will, as ever, be accompanied by celebrity readings and a glass or two of stout.
During the afternoon Joyce's nephew Ken Monaghan, cultural director of the centre, leads a special Bloomsday walk around the city, tracing the famous footsteps of Leopold Bloom, and the evening will be rounded off in style by an International Bloomsday Ball at the centre, designed both to pay tribute to Leopold's wife, the sensual and stylish Molly Bloom, and to raise funds for restoration work on the building. There will be many familiar faces both among the celebrity guests and the performers, with everyone dressed, once again, in period costume.
If the ball isn't your scene, the Oak Room at the Mansion House will be the venue for a series of performances and readings; in the afternoon (2 to 5 p.m.) representatives of six writers' groups perform their own work, while in the evening (7 to 10 p.m) Pat Boran, Maureen Charlton, Rosemarie Rowley and Marion McEvoy will be among those who perform shows based on the work of Joyce.
