THERE may have been a smell of explosives lingering in the damp air, but Mr Alan Dukes's final ministerial occasion wasn't a showdown.
It was instead a "blowdown", the technical term for the demolition of the cooling tower at the former electricity generating plant in Allenwood, Co Kildare.
The outgoing Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications joined a host of locals on Saturday to watch some 4,000 tons of concrete and more than 200 tons of reinforcing steel being reduced to a neat pile in about three seconds.
At 286 feet high, with a base diameter of 205 feet, the tower was the highest reinforced concrete structure in the State.
In operation between 1952 and 1992, it had deteriorated gradually and parts of the concrete casing had started chipping off, according to an ESB spokesman.
As the last warning siren sounded at 10.29 a.m., an expectant hush fell upon the onlookers in a field beyond exclusion zone around the tower.
"It's like Cape Canaveral", said one woman. "We should have a countdown."
Then came a very loud blast and the tower began to sink in on itself before tilting westwards and landing on the ground like an elephant falling on its side. The ground shuddered.
The dust rolled towards the on lookers and then quickly dispersed, coating camera and camcorder lenses with a thin film.
A month's preparation went into the three second operation carried out by the Leeds based demolition company, Robinson and Birdsell, which has demolished some 100 towers in Britain.
About 2,000 holes had been drilled in the tower and filled with explosive. The positioning of the explosive was finely tuned so that the tower would fall away from nearby buildings.
The operation was "successful and according to plan", the ESB spokesman said. He said there had been no local objections.
The site is due to be turned into an enterprise centre for small businesses run by the Allenwood Community Development Association according to its project manager, Mr Ian Donald.