The guy from Frasier is nowhere in sight but the oysters are disappearing at a rate of knots. "This is my tea," says the newly elected Mayor of Galway, Martin Quinn, tucking in to smoked salmon and brown bread with gusto. "I have to be in the city hall at 7 p.m. to chair a meeting." In a lightgreen jacket in honour of the sunshine, he stays long enough to welcome us all to the city and its festival. Fergal McGrath, festival manager, knew the two-week party was off to a roaring start when he heard the priest in the Augustinian Church on Sunday urge parishioners to go out and celebrate its success. Feile Ealaion na Gaillimhe has been blessed from the pulpit. Tim Hopper is the only member of the US Steppenwolf Theatre Company who has roots in Galway. He knows what his great grandmother, Hanora Connaughton, would say if she were here, he says. Where's that guy from Frasier? she'd ask. But still there's no sign of John Mahoney. A red-haired Rondi Reed, also of the Steppenwolf troupe, tells us she's been married to Mahoney on stage "longer than my own marriage lasted". But where is he? Glenroe's Cathy Belton is enjoying the party vibe with her mother, Galway woman Anna Belton. Barbara McKeon, a former Irish Press columnist, is here, having returned from her travels in South America. Her latest radio play, Prodigal Daughter, is to be aired on RTE Radio 1 in the autumn.
Poet Rita Ann Higgins is at the Galway bash too. Her new collection, The Weather Beaters, is due out early next year. Artist Stephen Dee's work, meanwhile, has just gone on show in Kenny's Gallery. Cosmic Dance, an exhibition of work by artist Mick Mulcahy, has just opened at the Galway Arts Centre on Dominick Street, and the Waterford man is soon spotted, just in from a swim at an tra bhan, chatting to businessman Chris Terry.
The Lettermore Suite at the Galway Bay Hotel is packed with Australians, Americans, Galwegians and Koreans, to list just a few. Looking like a young bridegroom, Wom Hae Kim is in a traditional peach and bluesilk suit. The Korean company PMC is here to perform Cookin', which is about culinary humour and is "loaded with infectious rhythms". "We have also some relations in Galway," says Byung Tck Kim. "Well, we are the Irish of Asia," he says. "It is because we love singing, drinking, dancing and fighting."
(John Mahoney's flight was delayed, but by now he's safe and well in Galway, rehearsing for Long Day's Journey Into Night.)