High-wire walker traverses the Liffey

The radio station broadcasting from Custom House Quay was playing "I get knocked down/But I get up again".

Ruth Salama, who was supervising the tightening of support ropes for her high-wire walk across the Liffey, probably didn't appreciate the joke. Concern about the wind and the wire's stability was delaying her attempt to record the first Liffey crossing of this kind.

But when it finally got under way, the words of the song proved prophetic. Only 20 yards out over the river, the Spaniard from Fossetts Circus lost control of her balancing pole and avoided following it into the river by clinging to the wire and sliding to safety.

Half-an-hour passed. "She doesn't look confident," said one spectator. Maybe Ms Salama's confidence was affected by the black clouds rolling towards the Custom House. Just as she steadied herself again, the skies opened, scattering the spectators.

On a now wet wire and in front of a much reduced audience, she made another attempt. Facing into both the wind and the radio station's broadcast of Ravel's Bolero, this time she made it. "It was the most difficult climb of my life," she said. "You can't practice for something like this. It's an experiment every time."