It's a long time since I came out of a church smiling, but the weekend before last I left St Michael's Church in Dun Laoghaire feeling giddily uplifted. The organ, harnessed to the powerful hands and feet of a vigorous young person, was going hell for leather. Thundering arpeggios and richly-layered chords tumbled from the pipes, loading the air with exhilarating sounds. The church itself was in triumphal garb - every pillar, plinth and step decked with towers and ropes of flowers. Even the confessionals looked jaunty, with floral swags decorating their penitential profiles.
This sensual explosion - or more correctly, this Festival of Flowers - was just one part of the unexpectedly refreshing Dun Laoghaire 1500 Flower Show. The weekend event was a joint effort between the South County Dublin Horticultural Society, the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Parks Department and various local traders - and the whole thing was pulled together by Liam Plunkett, the show organiser.
The main action was on the Carlisle pier, a Victorian wood and steel structure which, starting in 1859, served the mail boat for many years. The pier is now defunct and no traces remain of the railway tracks that used to travel its length, delivering or fetching travellers and their suitcases making the journey across the Irish Sea. But the weekend before last, the sea-embraced building came gloriously alive again when an amazing 4,785 people turned up to see the town's first major flower show in ages (much to the surprise of the pier's resident pigeons, who curtly signalled their presence by the occasional splat from the rafters). At the entrance a brass band belted out instant good will and seaside atmosphere. Even the summer made an appearance, heralded by clouds of flying ants that drifted languidly on the heavy air.
About 40 garden professionals set up their stands, including nurseries, garden designers, flower-pot merchants and gazebo builders. The carnival mood was completed by the lemonade - from real, live lemons - that flowed from one stall, and nearby, a man selling stretch ironing board covers assisted by a sign urging "Please Feel the Quality".
But the real quality, the real business of the weekend, was at the far end of the building, past the busy lizzie- and lobelia-bedecked boat (so absolutely Dun Laoghaire!), past the Parks Department's wonderful evocation of the borough (with miniaturised front gardens, woodland and of course, superb bedding), past Harry Byrne's stylish selection of up-to-the-minute plants (Ceanothus `Bright Eyes', Oenothera `Siskiyou', Lithodora `Star'). Finally - there it was, the core of the event: the South County Dublin Horticultural Society's long, blue-draped show benches.
Some 400 entries in 150 categories displayed superlative specimens of floral and vegetable life, earnestly nurtured by their owners. Lines of green vases held the sweetest of sweet peas, the brightest and blowsiest dahlias, the freshest, fullest panicles of phlox, the deepest, darkest Buddleia `Black Knight'. Tautskinned tomatoes, plump pea pods, round golden onions , elegantly-tapered carrots - all were carefully and proudly arranged on regulation white paper plates.
This magnificent assemblage of garden produce had arrived the night before the show in the backs of cars, by bicycle, in string shopping bags, even in a vintage - but serviceable - dove-grey Morris Minor driven by a perfectly-coiffed senior lady gardener. The "Best in Show" prize, incidentally, went to another mature grower, the 92-year-old Mrs Olive Hipwell, for a decades- old, towering Cleistocactus, a woolly cactus from the South American Andes.
Personally, I would have liked to have awarded a "Best in Show" to every single entry and exhibit, both amateur and professional , for making the Dun Laoghaire Flower Show the best thing to happen in this town in a long time. Many of us who live here have watched awe-struck as this once-lovely port has been eroded by clumsy shopping centres, massive office buildings and out-of-scale apartment blocks - interspersed with uncontrollable traffic and other, more grim things.
There are rumbles that the Carlisle pier may be demolished. I sincerely hope it's not. During the show, when it came alive with people and plants, it offered hope we might salvage some of the essence of Dun Laoghaire. I'm sure the other 4,784 people who were there with me will agree that the pier is a magical venue - for shows, concerts, a market: the possibilities are endless. Encircled by the strong granite arms of the East and West Piers, lapped on three sides by water, and filled to the brim with contented citizens. There are few places to equal it.
A selection of upcoming flower shows:
Today, 3-5 p.m: Delgany and District Horticultural Society Summer Show, St Patrick's Hall, Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Today, 3-6 p.m. and tomorrow, 2-5 p.m: Dublin 5 Horticultural Society "Vista Show", Chanel College, Coolock Village. Includes display of up to 200 different fuchsia varieties grown by Nick Egan.
Sunday, August 30th, 2-5 p.m: St Brigid's Horticultural Society Summer Show, Beneavin College, Beneavin Road, Finglas.
September 5th: Howth and Sutton Horticultural Society
September 6th: Balbriggan Horticultural Society
September 12th: Clontarf Horticultural Society
September 26th and 27th: Naul Gardening Club