Joyce remembered with Bloomsday centenary breakfast
Hundreds of people from all over the world tucked into a traditional Bloomsday breakfast in honour of James Joyce in Dublin today.
President Mary McAleese joined relatives, scholars and lovers of the travels that Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom took on June 16, 1904 through Joyce’s novel Ulysses.
Dublin’s North Great George’s Street, where Joyce once lived, came alive this morning as street performers, people in period dress and actors brought scenes from the acclaimed modern novel to life.
For hundreds of tourists it was an epic journey, and for one it was a lengthy trek.
Philip Joyce, a grand-nephew of the author, walked for five days over 160 miles to attend the famous breakfast gathering.
Mr Joyce walked around 30 miles a day in his journey to raise money for Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.
He said: “I decided to do it rather than stand around looking pretty.
“It is a little bit different and they are more than welcome to anything I can do.”
On his own writing skills, he joked: “I do write a small bit but I’d better keep up the day job.”
There are more than 80 official events to mark the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday in Dublin.
Around 1,300 people feasted at the James Joyce Centre in the style of Bloom who relishes “the inner organs of beasts and fowls” in the opening of episode four of Ulysses.
