The man has covered all eventualities and every angle. Dermot Bolger can't put a foot wrong. He has his legal representatives, his spiritual advisers, a number of family members and a host of writers in tow. They've all come to celebrate the publication of his latest book, Temptation.
"Dermot goes nowhere without us," quips solicitor Padraic Ferry. He stands in one corner with barrister Michael O'Higgins.
Over in another corner at the publication in Eason Hanna's bookshop are the doctors of theology - all from All Hallows College, in Drumcondra - Sister Moya Curran, Father Tony Draper and Father Peter Donnelly. They're currently preparing to reconvene "The Spirit of the City" think tank, which will be held at All Hallows on Monday, July 17th when writers and theologians will discuss marginalised communities and other issues. Writers Hugo Hamilton and Tony Glavin and poet Micheal O'Siadhail are here also to herald the new Bolger work, which the writer tells us has no syringes, no drugs and no sex. "It's a simple book," he says, "about a woman who is tempted to feel special again through this man she meets on a holiday."
Prof Terry Eagleton, who is ready to do the honours at the launch, says the book is "about rituals and routines and what is stifling about them . . . and it ends on a note of renewal".
He confides that he himself is currently working on a semi-autobiographical book about being an altar-server for an enclosed order of Carmelite nuns when he was 11. "It was a very traumatic experience but . . . all will be revealed in the book."
Writer Eilis Ni Dhuibhne reveals that she's just written a novel in Irish - Dunmharu sa Daingean - and she has a collection of short stories coming out in the autumn. She's also basking in the glow of being shortlisted recently for the Orange Prize.
Bolger, who is with his wife Bernadette, says he's half-way through another novel and "I'm only 41". What keeps him writing, we wonder. You see, he jokes, "if I'm not writing, my two children are beating me up. So I hide in the attic and write."