THE MOST interesting thing about Mary Cummins's journalism, the publisher of her collection told last night's gathering, was her "unpredictability".
The many admirers of Mary Cummins assembled in Dublin's Temple Bar Hotel laughed knowingly. Laughed and perhaps thought that the tall, suited figure Mary had chosen as her guest of honour was the ultimate proof of that unpredictability.
Because the unveiling of the The Best of About Women took place in the giant shadow of Padraig Flynn's eyebrows. You could almost hear what people were thinking: "Pee Flynn, of all people! Isn't she gas!"
But Padraig Flynn didn't let her down. He delivered an oration of such warmth and depth that many of the sceptics in the audience were raising their own, less impressive, eyebrows. Six years after he inadvertently helped Mary Robinson's presidential campaign by first putting his foot in his mouth on a radio show and then shooting it, Padraig Flynn was being reborn.
He took time out from his hectic Euro-schedule to help launch a "brilliant collection" from one of the few journalists whose ideas could "fix themselves permanently in readers' minds". Most journalism, he made clear, was only fit for wrapping his chips in but not Mary's.
Mary was not one of those easygoing journalists "you'd like to take home with you after a hard day", he said. But he singled out for special praise an article about her relationship with her daughter, which filled him with "aching sadness". And referring to her illness he spoke of the "personal fight" which had kept her out of the pages of The Irish Times in recent months.
True to form, Mary laughed off the motion that her cancer was an intimate affair. But she recalled the day the book was conceived, last February.
"It was one of the bleakest post-Christmas days. Everything was dark and the house was full of bills, when publisher Anne O'Donnell rang and suggested it. That phone call boosted me all year. When I win the Booker Prize, or whatever, I don't think the phone call will be as special."
She spoke so warmly of her guest of honour that even he might have blushed, praising his "terrific" work in Europe and singling out his role as minister for justice in handling the case of Lavinia Kerwick: "I honestly think he saved that girl's life."
Among those who came to pay tribute was Finola Bruton, whose controversial contribution to the visit of Bill and Hillary Clinton occupies a chapter of Mary's collection. Proinsias De Rossa came too, and Mervyn Taylor, Frances Fitzgerald, Conor Brady, Feargal Quinn, Olive Braiden and Noirin Byrne.
Mary summed up: "It's great to see you all in one room, and at the same time, because these days we all seem to be going in different directions."
