Joyce's bigger, longer, dearer day

So what have you done this Bloomsday morning? Have you by now taken a dip in "scrotum tightening" waters, eaten "with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls," or discreetly purchased a bar of lemon soap?

Or are you just wondering what has caused the sudden outbreak of straw boaters, handlebar moustaches and strolling players on the streets of Dublin? Not the weather, certainly.

Once again, the annual celebration of June 16th, the date of James Joyce's Ulysses, is upon us. And like most things these days, it's bigger, longer and more pricey than ever.

This year's Bloomsday Festival began a week ago with a wake for poor old Paddy Dignam and lasts to the end of the weekend.

The annual Bloomsday messenger bike rally took place a day early this year, when over 40 brightly dressed would-be messenger boys and girls yesterday sped around the Joycean landmarks in aid of the Irish Youth Foundation. At least one rider showed some confusion in his knowledge of Irish writers by dressing as Dracula, not someone known to frequent Dublin's streets in June 1904.

The first posse of poets and hangers-on that marked the peregrinations of Leopold Bloom in 1954 travelled by coach around the city, ceasing their wanderings only when the alcohol felled the strongest of drinkers. Today's acolytes of Joyce are likely to find the going between the landmarks equally slow, thanks to the city's snarling traffic.

As ever, there are two Bloomsdays to choose from. The elite have their "Guinness Bloomsday Breakfast" from 8 to 11 a.m. in the James Joyce Centre on North Great George's Street - at £22 each.

Would-be offal-eaters and early-morning swimmers can indulge themselves at a variety of locations near the Forty Foot in Sandycove and environs.

This year's Bloomsday lecture and walking tour, conducted by Ken Monaghan, Joyce's nephew - price £15 - is sold out.

There are still plenty of free events for the rest of us to enjoy. Strolling players will be re-enacting scenes from Ulysses at the original locations. So watch out for Leopold Bloom buying his breakfast on Dorset Street at 8 a.m., purchasing that soap near Westland Row station at 9.45 a.m. and searching for a good read at Books Upstairs on College Green at 2.30 p.m.

Members of the Balloonatics theatre company will also be reading the first episode of Ulysses at the Dublin Writers' Museum on Parnell Square at 11 a.m. and re-enacting the "Sirens" episode of Ulysses at the Ormond hotel on Ormond Quay at 4 p.m.

Still going? You can always drop in at the Guinness Storehouse throughout the day and Temple Bar Square for further performances. The film version of The Dead is being screened outdoors in Meetinghouse Square in Temple Bar at 10 p.m., but tickets are sold out.

But those of us who like our Bloomsdays diminuendo will slip in for a quiet swim, raise a private glass of Burgundy or even take down our dusty copies of Ulysses for a reminder of how it all was. That done, we can return our tomes to their high shelves and relax in peace for another year.