Evidence of the mixing and learning between cultures that takes place in the Dún Laoghaire festival came with a series of coffee mornings, hosted by particular community groups.
This concept was tried out for the first time this year, with the Irish Travelling Community starting the ball rolling on Saturday in the VEC building on Eblana Street.
The idea of the coffee mornings is for a spontaneous information session to take place. Other coffee mornings, and afternoons, were hosted by the Roma Community, the Muslim community, and Akidwa, representing African women in Ireland.
Three women from the Southside Traveller Action Group, Geraldine Dunne, Nan O'Brien, and Margaret O'Leary-Connors, met and talked to a diverse group that included German artist Natasha Fischell and Italian radio producer Lorena Vasquez as well as a raft of locals (among them councillor Niamh Bhreathnach).
Conditions for Travellers have improved little in the past 20 years, Ms O'Brien said, and legislation requiring the provision of halting sites by local authorities had virtually no effect. "I have been settled for the past 26 years and it's always been like I'm in prison," she said. "But we fear that our culture is going to die out because our children are not used to life on the road."
Ms O'Leary-Connors said community representatives felt it was only through the schools that negative attitudes towards Travellers could be changed.
"When we go into schools we find that we can do really well with the young teenagers. At first they will be negative because of what they have heard from their parents, but after they meet us and spend some time with us they change."
There are about 3,000 Roma in Ireland, many of them asylum-seekers. At yesterday's coffee morning, Ion Zatreanu, a businessman in his native Romania, said the new Roma arrivals in Ireland are keen to integrate and be of service to their new country.
The language barrier was often a difficulty for his compatriots. "But we want to stay here, we will do our best, we want to work and for our children to do military service here, and defend Ireland if it ever becomes necessary."