THERE'S nothing like an 8 a.m. start on a Sunday morning to sort out the committed Joyceans from the journeymen.
So Lord Jeffrey Archer was in no danger of being inundated with autograph hunters when he led off a marathon session of Ulysses reading at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin's North Great George's Street yesterday.
Breakfast was to be served from 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. But the realities of Sunday morning Irish time quickly, asserted themselves, and Bewleys, who were responsible for the catering end of the operation, were still serving the inner organs etc well past noon.
By then, the attraction of the Joyce, masterpiece still, being read upstairs was being seriously challenged downstairs by another great Dublin classic, served up in half pint glasses.
For those who stayed with the literature, however, the entertainment was of a high order. The ambassadors of Britain, Canada, Switzerland and Japan weighed in with readings, while the ambassador of Israel co-religionist of Ulysses's hero was content to remain quietly in the audience.
Joe Duffy put behind him RTE's schedule wars to read from the chapter about the Caffrey Twins. A father of triplets himself a taxi driver had congratulated him on having "three sets of twins" he said the extract was proof that Ulysses had something for everyone in the audience.
The Lord Ma or Mr Sean D. Loftus, was also a reader. Tony Gregory and, Pat Rabbitte represented the Dail.
Appropriately, since it is said of Ulysses that Dublin could be rebuilt brick by brick from its pages, the event was chaired by Sam Syephenson, who's rebuilt more bricks of it than most.
Out at Sandycove, meanwhile, the Martello Tower and Joyce museum was inundated with visitors all day. About half of these were there for the exhibition the other half were there for, the toilet, because the Corporation's beach facility was out of order.
Harassed curator Robert Nicholson already dealing with lo times the normal daily numbers of legitimate visitors struggled to stem the flow of beach life through his museum.
These were not among the 500 plus visitors from the UK, the US, Canada, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland and many other parts who visited the museum yesterday.
Bloomsday events were scattered throughout the city yesterday, with the Balloonatics Theatre Company popping up here, there and everywhere, for indoor and outdoor performances. The day's events finished last night back in the James Joyce Centre, with the International Bloomsday Ball.