On Mondays, the doors of our National Museum are usually shut tight, and the treasures that lie within are unlit. Last Monday, however, a red carpet marched up to wideopen doors on Kildare Street. A new exhibition, Viking Ships, was being - ahem - launched. It is the last event in the Out of Denmark cultural programme.
There was a genteel scrum within the entrance hall as battalions of photographers looked for the best pictures of the guests of honour, Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, and the President, Mrs McAleese, who gave the address.
The chic, diminutive princess wore a lilac suit and a large smile, as she pressed the flesh and moved upstairs to view the exhibition. Annelise Weimann is the xz royal correspondent for Denmark's weekly magazine about the royal family, and always travels with the couple. "There is much interest in Denmark about this Irish trip," she said. She studied the princess with a practised eye. "The princess does not always smile," she observed. "But in Ireland, she is smiling much more than usual. She must like it here."
Also with the party was the Danish Secretary General Eric Jacobsen and First Secretary, Thomas Lehmann. Happy to have an opportunity to speak in their native tongue for the day with old friends were the Danish ambassador to Ireland, Ulrik Federspiel and his wife, Dr Brigitte Federspeil.
For E. Gerner Nielsen, the Danish Minister for Culture, it was her first visit to the museum. "After 1,000 years, the Vikings are returning," she quipped. Showing the guests around the exhibition was Dr Patrick Wallace, the director of the National Museum.
Everyone paused to look at Ranvaik's Casket, a jewel-box which is on loan from a Danish museum. It was made in eighth-century Ireland and appropriated by Vikings in the 10th century.
The exhibition runs until April next year.
Collected wonders
On Monday evening, scores of writers jammed into the basement of Temple Bar's Left Bank for the launch of the Waterstone's Guide to Irish Books. "Writers are so vain, they'll always come along for a launch," novelist James Ryan said, with happy self-deprecation. Edited by Cormac Kinsella, the events co-ordinator at the Dawson Street shop, the book is a catalogue of books in print by Irish writers, as well as containing useful biographies. "It took me a year to do," said Cormac. Peter Cunningham was being shadowed by Paul Baggaley, from his publisher, Harvill. Hugo Hamilton was nattering to his mate, Philip Davison. Anne Enright was musing on a possible title for her very-nearly-finished new novel. "I might get a few ideas from reading those strange names of horses and hounds in the racing pages," she said. Enright is off to London shortly to present a six-part programme for Radio 4, intriguingly entitled Notes From The Ditch.
One of Gerald Dawe's poems is included as the epigraph to the book. "I think they only put it in because it mentions Waterstone's," he confessed. There followed a lively brainstorming session on the possibility of large organisations sponsoring poets to mention them in their lyrics for an appropriate fee: Ode to the National Lottery suggested itself as a lucrative title.
Laois-hold on the arts
On Tuesday evening, there was a reception in the Jackson Court Hotel to promote the Laois Arts Centre. "We're trying to set up a Dublin-based support group of Laois people to help us raise the rest of the money - £500,000," Seamus O'Sullivan, the foundation's co-ordinator explained.
It seemed like you had to be born in Laois to work for RTE, there were so many present from the mother station. Producers Seamus Hosey and Michael Campion were there, as was newsreader Eileen Dunne. Showjumper Ned Campion came trotting in. Others from the world of sport were Ian Fitzgerald, the captain of the Under-21 Gaelic football team and Dan Walsh, who was a professional wrestler in the 1960s. "The time when a knock was a knock and it wasn't just show business."
Rita Kelly, the county's current writer-in-residence, was there, as were arts officer Muireann Ni Chonaill and the former ombudsman Michael Mills. The centre is due to open early next year.
McCann can
On Wednesday evening in Tosca, in Dublin, journalist and commentator Eamonn McCann was celebrating his new book, McCann: War and Peace in Northern Ireland. The book is a selection from his columns in Hot Press over the past 15 years, and the entire staff of the magazine appeared to have turned up to celebrate with him, including editor Niall Stokes.
Jim Sheridan sat in one of the window seats and thought about what he was going to say for his few words of introduction. "I'm writing a story about going to the US with my family in 1982, in the first year of the AIDS plague," he revealed. Eamonn was musing on the fact that two fellow pupils from his old school, St Columbs College, Seamus Heaney and John Hume, had been awarded Nobel prizes. "One of them got it three years ago, and the other last week, so in another three years there's sure to be another ex-Columbs pupil on the list!"
Champagne on the Green
As darkness fell on Wednesday night, the lights were being officially switched on in the Fitzwilliam Hotel on St Stephen's Green. This was the launch party of the week, if not the month - a huge, stylish shindig. John Kavanagh, the hotel's general manager, stood at the door for hours to welcome each guest.
Sir Terence Conran, whose design group CD Partnership created the "Baronial Modern" look of the hotel, came from London for the night. Sir Terence was with his partner, Vicky Davis.
"I spent the morning checking out the competition," he admitted. "I had a look at the Merrion and the Clarence."
It's a busy time for the man whose surname has become a lifestyle byword. "I'm opening a new restaurant in Paris next week, Alcazar." Alcazar is "a 13th century wooden building in the Latin Quarter".
The new Dublin hotel looked very alluring, with its simple, uncluttered interior, and understated foyer. Square, glass vases of red rosebuds were spotlit in alcoves like installations. A moat of candles lined the foyer. Violinist Lisa McLoughlin and pianist Dila Abdrachmanova-Bryar played classical music on the mezzanine. The hotel's owner, Michael Holland and his wife Carol were waylaid all night with compliments, as was Michael's business partner, Brendan Gilmore.
Chef Conrad Gallaher, whose restaurants have both moved into the Fitzwilliam, was overseeing the distribution of his canapes and cocktails, which went by the names of Lemon Drops and Grasshoppers. The champagne corks popped madly.
Among the 300 guests were Desmond Guinness, Marc O'Neill and Cuan Hanly, who designed the hotel's striking, dark, Nehrustyle uniforms; designers Mary Gregory and Louis Copeland; TD Nora Owen; Gerald and Clodagh Kean; producer Redmond Morris; Patricia Devine, who sat in the bar serenely drinking tea; Michael Heffernan and his partner, Maureen Dolan; model Sonia Reynolds and her husband, Barry Lyons.
At some stage in the evening, everyone became very interested in the contents of the white envelope they had been given on the way in. In fact, some started searching frantically for said envelope, accepted so casually on arrival. Within was a gift voucher for a complimentary night's stay in the hotel, with breakfast in Christopher's; surely the PR coup of the year.
Orchard gathering
Singer Sean Tyrrell celebrated his new album, The Orchard, with a party in Vicar Street on Thursday evening. Doing the launch honours was actress Brenda Fricker, who was sporting a radical new haircut, and who had abandoned her sick-bed to make the event. "If you're lucky, you come across a talent like Sean's once or twice in a lifetime," she said. "When he sings, I feel alive."
Among the guests were actors Mick Lally and Sean McGinley. Poet Michael Hartnett was being followed around by a film crew from Power Productions, which is making a documentary about him. One of Michael's poems, The Ghost of Billy Mulvihill, has been set to music and is included on The Orchard. Also there to cheer Sean on were Mary Coughlan an on, as was and Frankie Lane.
