THE plane was British, the beef was Irish, the wine was French and the performers came from Northern Ireland, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Drogheda, Dundalk and Brazil.
That was only the first day. There are 183 more to go before we hand over the great Euro jamboree to the Dutch.
Last night, as they returned to their hotel by coach after a major nosh up in Dublin Castle followed by outdoor entertainment in Temple Bar, the European Commissioners must have marvelled at the Irish capacity to celebrate something before it really happens.
It starts this morning with an intensive series of meetings in Dublin Castle designed to cover all policy areas in the space of 2 1/2 hours. The official start time is 9.30 a.m.
Whether this will be affected by last night's consumption at dinner of Blanc de Lynch Bages 1992 (Bordeaux), Chateau Vignelaure 1980 (Coteaux d'Aix en Provence), not to mention the Chateau Clos Haut Peyraguey 1996 (Sauternes), was not clear at the time of writing.
Washed down by the above beverages was a trio (surely a troika?) of seafood comprising prawns, crab and smoked salmon. Prime fillet of Irish beef in a herb crust with a morel sauce followed, and the dining was completed with a barquette (better than a bite-ette) of summer fruits with vanilla ice cream.
The assembled foreigners, some of whom will become household names before the end of the year and at least one of whom already is (Padraig Flynn), then strolled down to Temple Bar's Meeting House Square.
The common people had been cleared out earlier on, but not before being treated to a performance by an orchestra of power tools, some samba dancers from Drogheda and drummers from Belfast.
Mr Flynn appeared to be enjoying himself immensely, hailing old acquaintances and sharing jokes with all and sundry.
For those continental Commissioners who came without coats, it was quite chilly. The rain macs placed on each seat were not needed. "One size" said the label, though it was hard to know whether they would have fitted, say, both Mr Flynn and Sir Leon Brittan.
The brass and percussion sections of the National Symphony Orchestra played the new European anthem. The Commissioners, seated at the back, recognised it and stood up.
For the roughly 600 invited guests the tune was a source of some puzzlement and they remained seated. This European identity thing has some way to go yet.
The Commissioners and the Cabinet got short speeches from the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and Mr Santer. The speeches over, Virginia Kerr emerged to sing Mna na hEireann and was followed by over an hour of The Corrs, Anuna, Shaun Davey and others.
After a short visit to the Irish Film Centre to meet the performers, the Commissioners were finally poured into their coach.
They were all expected to be sitting in it again at 9.15 a.m. this morning.