Their heads are close together. They chat away cosily behind an exhibition screen. They could be sitting by their old stalls at Dublin's Iveagh Markets. They're waiting for Bertie Ahern to arrive and announce details of the £15 million development plan for their old market place in the Liberties.
Kathleen Kelly and Mary Brooks sold second-hand clothes in the market. Do they miss it? "Oh, we do sorely," they say.
"I miss the company and the few ha'pennies," says Kathleen. "We're living on pensions now. Where's Bertie? I'll tell him to raise it . . . Oh, the people who shopped there came from everywhere - they drove up in cars to us, doctors, publican's wives. If we had a pound for every story we listened to, we'd be millionaires. A lot of them were lonely women, we'd give them a chair and they'd sit there talking to us."
St Nicholas of Myra Parish Hall is decked out in splendour. There's no shortage of food or wine. Wielding a tray of canapes, Jennifer Salinger, from Watling Street, comes over to tell us she's going to tackle the Taoiseach herself about lone parents. Michelle Courtney and Sharon Foley, also carrying trays and wearing matching black and white aprons, promise to back her up.
Jeanette Cullen, who works in the local Connolly Information Centre, grew up close by. She has grandchildren. "But I generally don't like admitting to that - I'm too young," she laughs, pushing a shy Daniel Kinahan forward. "Give him a plug," she says. The young businessman has just started work with William Coombes, the furniture restorer.
Lord Mayor Councillor Mary Freehill arrives. Developer Martin Keane is there. Then an Taoiseach arrives and the speeches begin.
Tom Brunkard, representing the people of the area, recalls "the time when the Temperance Movement criticised Lord Iveagh for providing a convenient place for the poor to sell their rags so that they could buy another pint of his stout."
Bertie Ahern says that there was nothing great about Dublin in "the rare ol' times except the spirit of the people. As a youngster I was in the Iveagh Markets many, many times with my parents - some say it's where I bought my anoraks."
And, so, to the finale and a presentation to the taoiseach. Someone at the back of hall wonders what he's about to receive. An anorak? It turns out to be a copy of Dubliners by James Joyce.