Writers, writers everywhere and not a . . . pen/laptop/inkwell in sight. They arrive to congratulate James Ryan o his new book, Seeds of Doubt, which is launched by his fellow writer, Jennifer Johnston.
"He does a very interesting and dangerous thing in the middle [of the book], and it works. The book is like a sandwich," says Johnston.
Prof Ciaran Benson, head of psychology at UCD and author of the recently published Cultural Psychology of Self, is here "looking forward to spring". Eugene McEldowney's next book, which is a companion book to The Faloorie Man, is due for publication this summer. Rita Kelly, the writer and poet from "the flag plains of east Galway", is gearing up for her next work, to be called An Bhfaca tu na Beavers?
Tim Carey, curator of the GAA Museum at Croke Park, says he plans to write, following the success of his last book, The History of Mountjoy, which was in the bestseller list for two weeks, a history of political imprisonment. Another sure-fire winner there, no doubt. No, really, he says. "It'll sell more than the other one." Carey was one of James Ryan's students at Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, Co Dublin. The man was a brilliant teacher, he says. "The best I ever had."
Dr Garret FitzGerald, who is punctual to a fault, arrives at 6 p.m. Others at the launch in the Dublin Writers' Museum include Maeve Binchy, Tim Pat Coogan, Elizabeth Peavoy, Anne Haverty, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and film-maker Tom Hayes.
Ryan's wife and Literary Editor of The Irish Times, Caroline Walsh, is here also with their two children, Alice Ryan (14) and Matt Ryan (17). The father of the author, P.P. Ryan, a solicitor from Rathdowney in Co Laois, attends also.