Nelson Mandela 85th birthday party held last night had a distinctly Irish theme with Bono joining the Corrs on stage and former US president Bill Clinton quoting verses by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney in praise of Mandela.
The former South African president along with the Irish contingent joined former Archbishop Desmond Tutu and chat show host Oprah Winfrey at a banquet for 1,600 people to celebrate his July 18 birthday, marked across South Africa as a day to hail "Madiba" - the tribal name by which the anti-apartheid hero is known to millions of South Africans.
Mr Mandela's South African invitations spanned the range of his many years of political activity, stretching from fellow struggle hero and Nobel peace laureate Tutu to white South Africa's last president, FW de Klerk.
International luminaries in attendance included Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, former Zambian President Kenneth Kuanda, and a collection of local pop stars and business heavyweights, as well as his cook and gardener.
"We thank God for you Madiba, for teaching us to forgive," said Archbishop Tutu of the man who led South Africa down the road to democracy, peace and reconciliation.
"We thank you Madiba for making our country a beacon of hope for the rest of the world," Clinton said.
Written salutations came from international leaders ranging from Britain's Queen Elizabeth to Cuba's President Fidel Castro and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
A particularly poignant birthday message came from Wilma Verwoerd, the 13-year-old great-granddaughter of Hendrik Verwoerd, the man known as the architect of whites-only rule and prime minister when Mandela was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 1964.
"You've changed my life for the better. You've taught me to love people of all races and colours," Verwoerd wrote in a letter shown on massive video screens at the party.
"Happy Birthday Mr Mandela. I hope you get some nice presents." The banquet was Mandela's biggest party since his 80th birthday celebrations, when he married his third wife, former Mozambican first lady Graca Machel.
Mandela's 85th birthday celebration has been marked all week in South Africa, and will culminate today when the former president opens a new bridge connecting impoverished central Johannesburg to the city's plush northern suburbs - a symbolic linking of black and white residents of the city.