A Motley crew of artists and architects has assembled to pat each other on the back at the Dublin Brewing Company on North King Street. They're in force, scoffing oysters, dark chocolate and . . . em . . . some rather pungent cheese, which has them all smelling sweetly.
Maire Moriarty, a barrister by profession, is doing the meet-and-greet thing. She's the presenter of a new TG4 series about interior design called DY2K, which is being launched at the party and screened on the wall behind us. Dressed in black and white during the day, she can "live in colour" after work, she says. Tonight she is in a jazzy, figure-hugging dress. Her mother and father, Eileen and Donall O Muircheartaigh, are also here enjoying the party. Ben Barnes, the new director of the Abbey theatre, has been and gone. One of the architects at the bash is Dermot Boyd, who is just back from a Christmas and New Year holiday in Havana. (Well, New Year in the Gaeltacht is where it was at, you know.) Artists Peadar Lamb and Oisin Breathnach and actor Colm O Maonlai are also in evidence.
The most eye-catching individual at this party of beoir agus bia is composer John Walsh from Cavan, who has long, flowing locks of auburn. "He's got the mane," says one wag. And while we're on the subject, another attendee with a fine shock of auburn curls is Catherine Punch from Limerick, who works with the Anna Livia International Opera Festival, which, she says, will kick off on Bloomsday in Dublin later this year.