Social satirists, caricaturists, artists, cartoonists . . . they all came to Cow's Lane to toast two of their own.
Tom Mathews has been "an institution in Dublin" for 30 years while "no one is safe in the hands of Stephen Dee". The two institutions took a bow as Gerry Crosbie, of the Whichcraft Gallery in Temple Bar, introduced them to the packed audience. He then asked "the legendary Beano artist" Leo Baxendale, the creator of many comic characters "in the days before PokΘmon", to come up to the microphone. Baxendale officially declared the Comic Cuts exhibition open. He and his wife, Peggy Baxendale, were on their first visit to Dublin. They would definitely come back, they said.
The social satirist Roger O'Reilly, aka Rodge, president of the Federation of European Cartoonists in Ireland (of which there are about 23, he says), joined Graeme Keyes, Tom Halliday, Jim Cogan and Aidan Cooney in insisting they all loved the work.
Also spotted at the opening were artists Bernadette Madden and John Campion.
Many had favourite pieces from the Dee sculptures, such as Samuel-Beckett-in-a-bin; as well as favourite Mathews cartoons, such as the two rhinos chatting. Suits you, sir, says one of the chary-eyed animals to the other.