Flower power sets the scene for record-breaking Daffodil Day

There were only 10,000 daffodils in William Wordsworth's poem, not nearly adequate for an assault on the record for the world's biggest bouquet.

The new mark was set yesterday at a whopping 33,000. The daffodils were not exactly tossing their heads in sprightly dance in Dublin's Temple Bar, stuck as they were to a five-metre-high aluminium can, but Wordsworth could only have been impressed at the awesome display of flower power.

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, never a shrinking violet when it comes to photo opportunities, pinned the last few blooms in place to claim the record previously held by 27,000 New York carnations. The bouquet was duly authenticated for entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Then Mr Martin expressed the hope for another record performance today when the event being publicised - the Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Day - attempts to beat the £1.26 million raised last year.

The growing confidence surrounding the Irish rugby team was also on display, when team captain Keith Wood posed with nurses for photographs and a voice in the crowd asked if this was the team to play Wales.

Having already helped pluck the flower of Scotland, he could set his own record next week by leading an Irish team to four successive championship wins for the first time in half a century.

On a more serious note, the society also released a survey of attitudes to cancer. The study showed that one-third of respondents did nothing to counteract the risk of developing cancers, with men, the less-well-off and older people the worst performers. People also generally underestimated the chances of surviving cancer, the survey found.