Dubliners and James Joyce fans celebrated Bloomsday on Monday by recreating the 24-hour odyssey through the capital described in the writer’s masterpiece Ulysses.
Dressed in Edwardian-style straw hats and striped blazers, Joyceans quote the novel as they follow the trail and watch the writer’s many characters come to life for one day.
The day starts with an early morning visit to the 200-year-old Martello look-out tower where Joyce lived in the suburb of Sandycove.
Only the most devout fans can then stomach a hearty breakfast of ”the inner organs of beasts and fowls” — thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, stuffed roast heart, and grilled mutton kidneys with the compulsory ”tang of faintly scented urine”.
An easier option for re-enacting the book is purchasing a bar of lemon soap.
James Joyce and his future wife Nora Barnacle took their first walk together on June 16, 1904, and the writer immortalized the moment in his epic novel.
Bloomsday was first celebrated by a group of Dublin writers in 1954 when the book was still banned under Ireland’s strict censorship laws.
Modern traffic has made it extremely difficult to wander through the city as Leopold Bloom did but the opening of a new city centre bridge on Bloomsday was intended to free up some of the city’s traffic congestion.
The 9-million-euro James Joyce Bridge over the river Liffey was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and links to the Usher’s Island part of the city where Joyce set his short story The Dead.
The opening of the bridge was delayed six months because of its unusual design, incorporating a concrete deck hanging from splayed steel arches. – Sapa-DPA