Mac-packers at Euro bash

PRESUMABLY everyone has read all they want to read about the party to "Launch the Presidency" in Temple Bar last Monday night…

PRESUMABLY everyone has read all they want to read about the party to "Launch the Presidency" in Temple Bar last Monday night - how amazing the stage at Meeting House Square looked how absolutely frozen everyone was how the European anthem caught us completely unawares - the Euro suits at the back stood up on cue, but it was a while before the rest of us copped on that the music indicated a stand up occasion, resulting in a sort of mortifying Mexican wave and of course how good the concert was.

Dame Street was so packed with gardai wearing their snazzy day glo overjackets that the street lights were practically redundant, and there were even armed gardai on the roofs making it all the more annoying to discover, at the end of the concert with Anuna still ringing in my ears, that my trusty mountain bike had been stolen.

A more curious piece of light fingering was the case of the missing macs. The organisers had left out 650 clear plastic capes one on every seat - and remember, this was a very posh, very select evening with the Irish Government and the entire European Commission in attendance. It didn't rain, but oddly enough at the end of the night only four macs were left. This amused the folks from Temple Bar Properties, who had hoped - and even thought it unnecessary to specify that the macs were to be left behind for other open air occasions.