Weddings were in, race meetings still won prestige, while the right kind of book launch was not to be missed. But what exactly were the social events of 1997? The ones that everyone talked about for weeks, the invites you could drop casually in polite company, the ones where nothing but Gucci would do . . .
For many, the party at the Hugh Lane gallery to celebrate Roy Foster's Yeats book, The Apprentice Mage back in March was a highlight. With two of Yeats's children - and Michael - in attendance, as well as Francis Stuart, author and grandson of Maud Gonne, it was both a poignant and a be seen occasion.
As the select few travelled back to a party at Kieran and Viv Guinness's house, Knockmaroon, Anne Yeats spied the Hale-Bopp comet and concluded that a celestial blessing had been placed on the book.
More recently, the world and his wife turned out for the bun-fight that accompanied Michael O'Sullivan's book on Brendan Behan, including Brendan's siblings, and Carmel Behan Bertie Ahern. Indeed, the book launch is fast becoming the political social engagement of choice, with a large Leinster House turnout at the parties for Maurice Manning's novel, and John Horgan's biography of Sean Lemass.
The only thing to beat a good book launch in terms of celebs is a first night at the theatre. Undoubtedly the jewel in the crown here was the premiere of Brian Friel Give Me Your Answer Do in the Abbey in March, which was flooded with intellectual heavyweights - Seamus Heaney, Seamus Deane, Toms Kilroy McIntyre, Frank McGuinness.
If you missed the standing ovation given to Mary Robinson that night, just a few hours after she announced her forthcoming departure, you might as well have left the country.
The other biggie was the opening of the Harold Pinter season at The Gate in April when the man himself wowed audiences in his own play,
The Collection. However, the surprise hit in the first night stakes was Mannix Flynn Talking to the Wall, a play refused by the Dublin Theatre Festival, but very much the thing if you were a member of or their entourage.
Of course, it was even more impressive to attend opening nights overseas and both Martin McDonogh The Cripple of Inishmaan in London and Sebastian Barry The Steward of Christendom in New York drew the right crowds.
Gallery openings lost a little in popularity in 1997, with their pole position taken over by the book launch. However, the Andy Warhol retrospective in IMMA pulled in a record number of revellers when it opened in November, and a pop artist of quite a different calibre also pulled the crowds - Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, who threw one helluva party when his exhibition opened in the Baton Rouge in July.
Private parties are always in. The good invites to have on your mantlepiece in 1997 were to a house party in Glin castle with the Fitzgeralds; a dinner party by Kieran and Viv Guinness; a birthday bash for a member of, or indeed, just about anything in Killiney and Dalkey - if you can afford those property prices, odds are you'll throw a good party.
Of the race meets, the Irish Derby at the Curragh in June probably came in tops with everybody from model Sophie Dahl
Bertie Ahern enjoying a flutter, but the Grand National at Fairyhouse on Easter Monday, and the Galway Races in August gave the Derby a run for its money.
Sticking with things equine, the Horse Show is still holding its own as a top notch social event - if only because it's the excuse for several Horse Show balls.
Of course the biggest social event is always the wedding and 1997 was a good year for nuptials with cachet.
The most splendid was undoubtedly the union of film producer Hamish McAlpine
Karen Nicholls, which was held in Luggala, Garech de Brun's place in Wicklow. With oodles of caviar flown in, breakfast at dawn beside the lake, and guests including Paul McGuinness, photographer Perry Ogden and artist Tracy Emin, it was certainly the invite of choice.
The most popular time for getting hitched was the first week in September, which saw a whole rash of weddings. Father Ted star Pauline McLynn swopped rings with Bickerstaffe Theatre Co's Richard Cook in Kilkenny, the day before comedian Dylan Moran took his vows in London.
Over in Sligo, novelist Dermot Healy was wed to banker Helen Gillard in the week before the Scriobh literary festival, while in Dublin, Green on Red gallery owner Jerome O Drisceoil Amanda Pathe with the reception in Eden, the trendy Temple Bar restaurant.
Sporting unions were all about timing - golfer Padraig Harrington married Caroline Gregan just the week after his World Cup win this month, and Clare hurling captain Anthony Daly postponed his nuptials until after the crucial All-Ireland match in September.
The links between politics and journalism grew that bit closer in July when business writer Nick Webb married Rebecca Ross, daughter of Shane Ross.
Business mergers included the marriage of Michael Smurfit Jnr to management consultant Kathy Muldowney with a reception held in - surprise, surprise - the K Club, and the marriage of Howard Kilroy's Simon Kilroy to his business partner, Gail Buckley, also in the autumn.
So, if you want to know which events are crucial in 1998, keep this in mind the following ratings: readings - good; racing - better; rings - best.