FAR from plump and soon to be a little less stately, Dick Spring ascended a pulpit in Amsterdam yesterday to begin a marathon Bloomsday reading of Ulysses, one of many distractions from the EU summit in the Dutch capital.
The Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs was the first of 73 readers on a multilingual extravaganza that began at 7.30 a.m. in a deconsecrated church called the Singel Kerk and continued until midnight at venues throughout the city.
Mr Spring was followed by Ireland's ambassador to the Netherlands, Mr John Swift and, a little later, by a Dutch member of parliament reading from his own Arabic translation of the book.
The reading was organised by Dubliner Patrick Healy, who recently became the first artist in residence at the Amsterdam Arts Front. Mr Spring, an early riser like Leopold Bloom himself, was in ebullient form as he began his reading.
"I didn't know Joyce myself but I think he would have liked this," Mr Spring said.
Joyce visited Amsterdam during the 1920s and, according to one legend, all his nightmares came true in a single day when a dog barked at him, he lost his spectacles and was caught in a thunderstorm. But he clearly enjoyed an earlier holiday in the Netherlands when he remarked that he had never seen people smile so much.
The people of Amsterdam were still smiling yesterday even though their city was besieged by summiteers, among them what Mr Healy dubbed in Joycean style "a posse of presstitutes". The journalists, each wearing a large, yellow plastic square around their necks, spent most of Bloomsday chasing elusive politicians and ubiquitous spin doctors around a vast media centre at the summit.
Traffic in the city centre which, at the best of times, is a nerve wracking contest between bicycles cars and trams stopped almost completely yesterday as EU leaders swept along canals and across bridges behind a cavalcade of screaming police vans. The police were kept busy over the weekend dealing with left-wing rioters in Dam Square but local people blamed German interlopers for the trouble.
Most protests, from Sunday's "sex riot" advocating greater tolerance for sexual diversity to the campaign for more women's lavatories in Amsterdam, have been peaceful and good-natured. The city, which is neither a seat of government nor a major industrial centre, appears to be enjoying the excitement generated by the summit.
Amsterdam's gentle, tolerant atmosphere may be making an impact on Europe's politicians too, with even the traditionally awkward British delegation waxing lyrical about the harmonious atmosphere of the negotiations. Almost everyone involved in the Dutch organisation of the summit, from the policemen lounging in the sun to the caterers on a fleet of floating restaurants, is polite and cheerful, setting a gleaming example for the participants.
Back at the Singel Kerk, the Joyceans were planning to end their reading with a late night party, but Mr Spring was obliged to make his excuses and leave.
"Amsterdam, I leave you to Joyce while I go and save the world," he declared.
