A once-off public holiday and a breakfast for 10,000 people on O'Connell Street are some of the proposals being considered for the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday next year, writes Paul Cullen.
Two separate committees are working on preparations for the centenary Bloomsday in 2004, with academics and tourism chiefs alike hoping to organise the biggest celebrations yet of the day James Joyce first walked out with Nora Barnacle.
Yesterday's festivities might have lacked the razzmatazz planned for next year, but they easily made up for it with lashings of bright sunshine and a suitably relaxed approach to the Joycean odyssey.
The big event was the opening of a new bridge over the Liffey, appropriately designed by a Spanish architect, Dr Santiago Calatrava, who lives in one of Joyce's former houses in Zurich.
As usual, yesterday's party began with a Bloomsday breakfast at the James Joyce Centre on North Great George's Street, where the likes of Myles Dungan, Gay Byrne and Harry Crosbie joined actors and actresses in a four-hour reading from Ulysses.
The former Howth tram lent a last-century touch to proceedings as a large crowd tucked into earthy breakfasts and draughts of "foaming ebon ale". Across the bay, small knots of swimmers braved the "scrotum tightening" water at the Forty Foot while costumed readers read from Joyce in the Martello Tower nearby.
At one point, the reading was interrupted to allow for a live radio broadcast, prompting at least one enthusiast to rail against this intrusion of modernity: "We've survived years of neglect, terrorist threats, everything without having to stop our readings - that is, until the media came along."
By lunch, the centre of action had moved to Davy Byrne's "moral pub" on Duke Street. The Bloomsday special of Gorgonzola sandwich washed down with a glass of burgundy was available for €10.90, though most diners passed it over in favour of more traditional dishes.
As one unsuspecting customer said: "Mother of God! Do you have any proper food?"
While the straw boater brigade was getting into gear inside, author Roddy Doyle passed on the street outside. "I didn't realise it was Bloomsday until I saw two people dressed up and realised. I like the book, but it's not on my calendar, I'm afraid."
Visitor numbers are down for this year's Bloomsday, according to Lisajane Duffy, marketing officer of the James Joyce Centre. "It's partly the downturn in the tourist sector generally and then the serious Joyceans are saving themselves for next year's centenary," she said.
Back in Davy Byrne's over gorgonzola sandwiches New Yorkers Francis and Jenny Grasso had a unique take on this year's Bloomsday. "A friend pointed out that this year is the 100th Bloomsday, so we could come over and enjoy the fun without it being too crowded. Then, if we like it enough, we can come back again next year for the centenary."