Consumed with relish, the inner parts of Bloomsday

TUCKING into a major work of literature for breakfast is like facing a plateful of giblets, gizzards and other assorted innards a tad on the heavy side in the delicate hours of morning.

But there were plenty of robust appetites attacking both dishes with relish yesterday as the centenary of James Joyce's Bloomsday served up a more substantial than the usual literary and culinary start to the day.

No respectable cafe was without an extra supply of black pudding and sausage for the legions of Leopold Bloom devotees who threw caution and muesli to the wind to follow the dietary habits of their hero to the last morsel.

Bewley's went the whole hog, literally, and added sautéed kidneys and lambs liver to their selection of inner organs of beasts and fowls of the kind that had Bloom salivating in Ulysses.

Commemorations of the June day immortalised in the novel weren't entirely preoccupied with food, however. Some of those who indulged were found working off the excess on walking tours retracing Bloom's footsteps; risking life, limb and expensive costumes on rickety iron bicycles or engaging in vigorous debates about the author's legacy.

Bloomsday celebrations took place in 40 cities around the world yesterday as fans of the novel gathered to remember and re-enact June 16, 1904, when the character of Bloom set off on his day of wandering, pondering and encounters around Dublin city.

In Dublin, President Mary McAleese helped turn the fly-leaf on the proceedings by attending a Bloomsday breakfast at the James Joyce Centre. That was followed by dozens of special events including readings, plays, pageantry and exhibitions.

University College Dublin, which can boast of having Joyce as its most distinguished graduate, marked the day by conferring honorary doctorates on a group of renowned Joycean scholars and writers, including fellow UCD graduate Roddy Doyle.

Doyle, whose quip earlier this year about Joyce needing a good editor resulted in misunderstandings of epic proportions, put the controversy behind him, concluding that if he'd been run out of the country for his comments, at least he'd have had have something else in common with Joyce.

The festivities finished up last night with a parade down Dublin's O'Connell Street. However, the associated Rejoyce festival will continue at theatres, cinemas, galleries and other arts venues throughout the summer.