A business-like State reception for poets, musicians, composers, writers, artists, actors and all those connected with the arts began promptly at 6.30 p.m. It was the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Arts Council.
Chuir Gary Hynes, a bh∅ mar bhean an t∅ don ocβid, fβilte r≤mhainn go lΘir. Rinneamar bualadh bos, agus sheas S∅le de Valera TD, an tAire Eala∅on, Oidhreachta, Gaeltachta agus Oileβn chun na horβide a dhΘanamh. C≤mhghβirdeacahs, a d·irt s∅.
No rowdy element let a cheer rip through the packed assembly. Seamus Heaney sent his "personal regrets", said the minister. He was in Stockholm to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize.
"There is huge enthusiasm for all the arts in Ireland," she said. No pin dropped. This year £37.5 million was allocated by the Government to the Arts Council, she told us, but added "it's much more than a grants-giving agency".
Spotted enjoying the event was writer John Banville talking to composer Gerald Barry. Jerome Hynes, chief executive of the Wexford Festival Opera, was pleased to come too. The party in Dublin Castle coincided with the music festival's 50 year celebration.
Liam McNulty, of Na P∅obair∅ Uilleann, and composer Michael Holohan were full of talk about the Battle of Kinsale, which happened exactly 400 years ago this month. To celebrate, the premiΦre of the Road to Lough Swilly, which commemorates the battle's defeated Irish chieftan, Hugh O'Neill, will be performed for the public on December 23 in the Hugh Lane Gallery.
Before the speeches, Patrick Murphy, chairman of the Arts Council, chatted to Stephen McKenna, the artist, who was up from Bagnelstown, Co Carlow for bash. His next show is in the Kerlin Gallery in Febuary.
Chatting to two mothers and their babies was Derry-man Dermot McLaughlin from the Arts Council. Jude Pierse, at eight weeks, was held by his mother, Audrey Keane, while Oscar ╙ Baoill, at eight months, was with his mother, Sharon McGrane.
Artist Maria Simonds-Gooding caught up with Melanie Le Brocquy, the sculptor and younger sister of Louis, who was also in the great room with his wife Anne Madden. Simonds-Gooding is up from Dunquin working with 39 other artists in Dublin's Graphic Studio on a project to be shown in the Chester Beatty Library next summer. Her work, she says cryptically, is an etching of Moses struggling up Mount Sinai.
Muriel McCarthy, keeper of Marsh Library, which celebrated 300 years this year, scans the packed room for her identical twin, MβirΘad Furlong, of Wexford. When they finally link up, a few heads do a double-take at the two, who were both in red and looking gorgeous.
According to Murphy: "there remains a challenge for all of us to articulate the value of the arts. The perception that the arts are for the benefit of artists only is fundamentally flawed." Then off everyone went - ready, willing and wanting to articulate.