IT will probably go completely unnoticed by anyone who doesn't actually work there, but the Shelbourne Hotel is changing its name today. Certainly no one in the packed bars last night (Christmas has begun with a vengeance on Stephen's Green - the Shelbourne has been completely jammed for the past two Fridays) seemed even remotely aware or even interested in, the name change.
From today, the official name for the hotel is the Shelbourne Meridien. As it is now owned by the Granada group the entire place has been undergoing, in the PR's words, "a process of Meridienisation".
Donegal man Gerry Robinson, who is chief executive of the entire Granada group, is flying in for a lunch to celebrate the name change.