At the height of the snow-storm, wall-to-wall suits cram into a new retail space on Wicklow Street. A great number of gentlemen have battled through the snow to witness the launch of Magee @ McSharry. It's the first time the two long-standing clothing companies - Magee and Kennedy McSharry - have joined together to do business. The champagne is uncorked, and trays of sushi are served also, to help take the sting out of the weather.
Spotted at the party is Conor Lenihan TD, chatting to Patrick Reynolds and Chris McCann. Today's Fianna Fail fund-raising race day at Leopardstown has been cancelled due to the weather, says Lenihan.
The jockey, Ruby Walsh, along with his brother, Ted Junior, and their famous father, Ted Walsh, are here, too, preparing to "hibernate" for a while until horse racing resumes. It's "all off", says the father nonchalantly on racing in the UK. What will they do? "Stay in bed all day," he says. An elegant Lynn Temple, from Donegal town, in a black suit with purple pin-stripes, says his look is "formal with a little twist". "Selling mens' clothes is just as much a business about selling an image." Also wearing a number with its own little twist is Tony McSharry, of Kennedy McSharry, the third generation to continue in the men's outfitter business. His younger brother, Neil, is in a dark pin-stripe suit with a lavender shirt.
John Walsh, of Magee, is wearing a pink shirt and a cream suit, because "it's spring", he says. Hah! Sean Kearns, a marathon runner, is in a green hounds-tooth wool suit from Magee. "I'm the face of Lacoste (in Dublin)," says the man who runs 25 miles a week, and in his life has completed 61 marathons.