The reading would begin when her longtime friend, Nell McCafferty, came back in after finishing her cigarette. Evelyn Conlon was surrounded by friends, Dubliners, countrymen, as she asked them to "lend me your ears". The room was packed with well-wishers, eager to congratulate the woman from Rockcorry, Co Monaghan after she read from her latest book, Telling - New and Selected Stories.
The actor and writer Gina Moxley came along as did the director of the film Nora, Pat Murphy, before jetting off to London the next day for the Nora premiere. Poet Tony Curtis, having just "written a poem about two nude young wans lying on the grass", was at the reading. "She's one of the spikiest and most distinctive voices in Irish fiction," declared Niall Mac Monagle, writer, editor and teacher at Wesley College. Afterwards the gathering adjourned to the Duke for a celebratory drink.