On the Town: The sun streamed through the glass, reaching down even to the below-ground-level windows of Chapter One restaurant in Dublin, where a crowd of artists assembled to herald the Éigse Carlow Arts Festival, which begins on June 12th.
Festival director Averyl Dooher, who, over months of planning and co-ordinating, has memorised the programme in every detail. She flashed about the room, ensuring that all were happy and mingling with like-minded guests.
Known for its emphasis on visual arts and crafts and for its support of local artists, Éigse is nevertheless expanding into the wider territories of performance arts. Leo O'Kelly, half of the duo Tír Na nÓg, which is performing at the festival, was basking in the sun and good food and wine, with writer Herbie Brennan (who will, among other things, be giving punters tips on how to work the literary market) and children's author David Donohue. Apart from reading from his books, Walter Speazlebud and the sequel, Moon Man, to be published later this year, Donohue is also turning his musical talents to writing an anthem for the festival.
Sculptor Rachel Joynt has put together a collection to honour her father, sculptor Dick Joynt, who died 18 months ago. She and her sister Julie found it "quite hard" to go through the many items in his studio, "but it was a positive thing to do . . . I feel sure he would have liked this; he always wanted to show his prints and drawings".
Una Parsons, a director of the Glass Society of Ireland, represented the popular and successful exhibition of Irish glass craft, Inspirational Awakening. And painter Mary Lohan, who is exhibiting in the festival, attended the launch with her 19-year-old daughter Geraldine Breen, who came to provide "moral support for mum".
After the programme was announced, a call from the floor asked: "Will there be any comedians?"
"You sound like one," retorted stand-up comic Dave Mc Savage, who will also appear at the festival. He hesitated to say where he was from, as "there's no way of saying you're from Blackrock and sounding cool". But never fear. "I'm very much in touch with my inner knacker," he assured us.