It is a wintry night early this week, when friends and colleagues come to Eason, Hanna's Bookshop to salute Kevin Myers on the publication of his first book.
It contains a selection from a decade of his columns, the Irishman's Diary, and is simply called Kevin Myers. It will, says Conor Brady, the editor of this newspaper and launcher of the book, "tremendously enliven our Christmas". "I just hope the Four Courts Press has excellent libel lawyers," he jokes, looking across at publisher, Michael Adams.
Brady also acknowledges "the great stewardship which Kevin has exercised over the Irishman's Diary in the years he has had it". He praises "his magical, bejewelled use of English and an intellect which fears no subject". "No issue is too sacred for him to take on," he says.
Myers's wife, bassoonist Rachel Nolan, says he's a "very disciplined" writer. Isobel Nolan, Rachel's younger sister, arrives along next. There's no sign of their more famous sister, Anna Nolan, who rose to fame when she appeared on Big Brother some months ago.
Storms, flooding and torrential rain also fail to keep his friends away. A former television producer with RTE, Aidan Maguire, who worked with the columnist on the station's Challenging Times quiz series for nine years, is here. Jessica Cunningham, another friend, pops over the road from Trinity College. And publisher Antony Farrell, of Lilliput Press, comes along to witness the launch. Here also is Damien Owens, a young writer from Monaghan town, whose forthcoming novel, a comedy called Dead Cat Bounce, will be published by Hodder and Stoughton and available in January.
Eamon Dunphy, of Today FM's Last Word, arrives along, telling Myers that "the team will be up" from the station once it's a wrap. Another friend, Lavinia Greacen, biographer of writer J.G. Farrell, comes to congratulate the man of the moment also. The stormy weather that has brought flooding and torrential rain is "very much a metaphor for the havoc that Kevin Myers has been wreaking," says Brady with a wise smile. This is the "very first anthology of an Irishman's diary," he concludes.