James Joyce aficionados have been blessed with fine weather on the 99th anniversary of Bloomsday, the 24 hours when Leopold Bloom, the hero of Ulysses, roamed through the streets of Dublin.
The celebrations started this morning with breakfast at the Martello Tower in Sandycove and continue with a series of breakfasts at restaurants and cafes nearby.
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James Joyce enthusiasts outside the Joyce Centre in Dublin this morning
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Throughout the day, Joyceans can expect to eat with varying degrees of relish the "inner organs of beasts and fowls" while they wash it all down with the "foaming ebon ale".
Later they go to the places where Ulyssesis set, to reconstruct the events in the novel via readings, dramatisations and chance encounters.
Later still, Joyceans will party into the night at a host of bars around Dublin linked to the writer.
The traditional Dublin celebrations originated in 1954 when a small group of Dublin writers set out in horse-drawn cabs from the Tower in Sandycove with the intention of visiting all the locations of the novel.
Nowadays, aficionados of the writer dress up in the Edwardian attire of the early years of the last century - mainly boaters and colourfully striped blazers - and stroll through the city in the manner of Bloom quoting out loud, to anyone who cares to listen, excerpts from Ulyssesen route.
