It seemed as though a cast of at least a thousand came to celebrate the publication of The Encyclopaedia of Ireland in the Arroll Suite of the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, this week. "My life has been ruled by this," said Brian Lalor, its general editor
His four daughters - Caoimhe, Ayelet, Eve and Allegra, were all present for the official launch of the tome.
After six years, does he retain all the interesting facts and details? "It takes me time but I can dredge up extraordinary things when I'm pushed," he said. The secret of creating an encyclopaedia was that "my concept was very wide at the beginning," he said. "The desire to include rather than exclude was terribly important." But, he added: "the devil's in the detail . . . It truly was. That was the sheer amount of difficulty in getting it right."
"You could call it, I suppose, the Encyclopaedia Hibernica," said Seamus Heaney, lauching the book. "It is equidistant from swagger and angst. It's a marvelous and instructive and multitudinous compendium. Up to date, up to speed, a wonderful physical book.
"What's needed is an altar boy to kneel down and carry it on his head," he joked. "It's a mighty Irish missal . . . It goes from the abbeys of the Cistercians to Zozimus."
He also referred to the difficulty some of the contributors had in dealing with "the two-Ireland factor", as documented by Lalor. Heaney said "the fact that I'm from north of the Border gave me some interest in this". He praised the encyclopaedia for seeking "to re-map the grounds of knowledge of ourselves".
The celebratory night was "like 10 All-Irelands in one," said Michael Gill, of Gill & Macmillan. Fergal Tobin, publishing director with Gill & Macmillan, was praised as the man responsible for the book's idea .
Among those present was consultant contributor Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, whose Words We Use column, has been running in The Irish Times each Monday for the past 10 years; Richard Grainger, former chief mechanical engineer of CIE, who contributed to the locomotive section, and fellow contributors James Martin, formerly of Bord na Móna. and maritime historian John de Courcy Ireland.
Then Heaney picked out entries that "you mightn't have expected" but which make this "a vehicle of celebration", going to L he cited Lambeg Drum, leprechaun, lesbianism and then he went to P.
"I'm rather fond of this," he said. "The Pogues; next entry is Poitín."