At the opening on Wednesday night of the exhibition Homage to Paper at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, there was a funny little ceremony. The Minister for Arts etc, Sile de Valera, presented the museum director, Declan McGonagle, with a lollipop containing a worm. The gesture relates to the trip to Mexico last September, taken to accept a collection of prints from the Smurfit Group. One night over dinner, when the party included the Mexican ambassador to Dublin Daniel Dultzin, there was some drinking of mezcal and betting that whoever got the worm in the bottle wouldn't consume it. McGonagle got it, and indeed, he swallowed it. The Diet of Worms has become a standing joke. When a mezcal-flavoured lollipop complete with worm was spotted by the Minister's adviser, Michael Ronayne, during last week's visit to Washington, (as the Minister attended the Irish arts festival there,) he bought it.
And did McGonagle consume the lollipop on Wednesday night? Not immediately anyway. He put it in his breast pocket.