Bloomsday takes on a global accent Jesuit priest and lawyer Frank Brennan is one of the Australian participants in an online global Bloomsday reading. EVERY year, on June 16, dedicated people around the world dress in Edwardian finery and head off to particular watering holes, there to join other groups and individuals similarly decked out in big hats and feather boas, or waistcoats with the obligatory bowler and pocket watch. Not all are called Shanahan or Sheehan, McGuire or Maloney, but they all have one thing in common; a passionate devotion to the cause of spreading the Irish literary heritage represented by James Joyce's Ulysses. This is Bloomsday. For the uninitiated, Bloomsday -- Sunday -- is that one particular day in one particular year when Leopold Bloom, the hero of James Joyce's Ulysses, takes himself on his own odyssey around Dublin. But Bloomsday is of course a great deal more than that. Ulysses has iconic status for Irish culture and globally is regarded as a breakthrough work of modern literature. For the Irish diaspora, Bloomsday, the dramatisation of Joyce's Ulysses is also symbolic of a prolific and distinct literary tradition that has spanned the world and includes four Nobel laureates: Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Seamus Heaney, as well as numerous other authors, poets and playwrights. But this year Joyce's masterwork is being celebrated in a unique way. In keeping with one traditional aspect of Bloomsday, the reading of passages from the novel, there will be a marathon global reading of Ulysses which will be recorded and filmed and broadcast on YouTube. This virtual Bloomsday global gathering on Sunday has been inspired by the actual global "gathering" of the diaspora to the Irish motherland this year, an incentive sponsored by the Irish government. The broadcast reading was organised through the James Joyce centre in Dublin, but the global Bloomsday readers will span the world, tracking the sun as in a single day. Fifteen countries and 26 cities are involved, from Auckland to San Francisco. Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Moscow, Pula (Croatia), Zurich, Trieste (where much of Ulysses was written), Sao Paulo and Santa Maria (Brazil) will also take part. The Australian end of this global phenomenon, which has been pre-recorded in Canberra, has been dovetailed with the national capital's centenary celebrations. As director of Canberra's centenary festivities, Robyn Archer is delighted to be one of the project's readers. "The focus could have been Melbourne, which has a huge literary tradition and Irish Australian population, but the Irish embassy decided to feature Canberra," she says. "They really went to bat for Canberra and the event encompasses a variety of readers," including those, such as Archer, without Irish heritage. Other readers include this newspaper's political editor Dennis Shanahan, a lifelong fan of the book; ACT Liberal MLA Brendan Smyth, and Jesuit priest and lawyer Frank Brennan. All agree that Ulysses has an appeal beyond the Irish family or literary tradition. But what is the point of reading Ulysses out loud? Archer sees the point clearly: "Ulysses looks very dense on the page. In fact downright scary," she says. But I was amazed. As soon as I got my mouth around the words and began to hear the tone it began to make much better sense. Archer believes the work is more enjoyable when read out loud. I have a natural inclination to just go for it. But there are lots of differences in pace and tone and the meaning was really enhanced," she says. Some readers say Joyce's stream-of-consciousness technique almost requires Ulysses be read out loud. For Smyth, who first read the book as a Marist schoolboy, speaking it "gives you a sense of how it is meant to be -- even with an Australian accent." Nessa Delaney, from the Irish embassy, says different accents are not a problem to an Irish ear. No not at all -- that is what we wanted. We wanted it to be Joyce for the world. To read Joyce in your accent . . . mispronunciations and all! Smyth loves Ulysses for what he calls its "very Irishness." However Brennan, Jesuit priest and legal scholar, is not a particular fan of the book, and points out that it would not have been written had Joyce not had the benefit of "a good Jesuit education." He is, however, "delighted" to have been part of the project. "After all, whether you really like it or not, Ulysses and the global Bloomsday is more than a celebration of Irish cultural identity," he says. The book is an important literary and modernist symbol. To be part of global Bloomsday is to be part of an immense international phenomenon. The Dublin reading of the work will come from the James Joyce Centre and the National Library. Readers will include Impac literary award-winner Kevin Barry, actor Frank Kelly and musician John Sheehan. Novelist Colum McCann will be involved in the New York event. But, isn't Bloomsday all a bit odd and pretentious? And what about the book itself? "We shouldn't take Bloomsday or Ulysses too seriously," says Smyth, whose family -- like Brennan's -- recently celebrated 100 years of Irish settlement in Australia. After all, this book has lasted longer than communism. For me it is a symbol of communal Irish feeling and the collective struggle. The book is like life itself. It doesn't have to make sense. The idea for virtual global Bloomsday has been enthusiastically received in Ireland. The Irish Times recently trilled: "Hearing Ulysses read in all these multiple voices and multiple accents, living exemplars of the book's own multiple voices and styles, its huge variety and range of linguistic expression, should be an inspiring experience." Indeed it should. The global Bloomsday reading of James Joyce's Ulysses will be streamed on the YouTube channel of Dublin's James Joyce Centre from 10.30am AEST on Sunday. www.globalbloomsday.com