Proud moment for a true master of stagecraft

David Kelly, Special Tribute winner, was unequivocal. "Well, this is wonderful, just wonderful, and it is heavier than I am - like everything", he said, grappling with the award.

He was honoured and grateful, not least since, at his age, he would have expected "a gift voucher for Fanagans \".

And everyone was looking so well. It was "like an evening with Louis Copeland". And "even Des [the actor Des Cave, who introduced him\] hasn't forgot the lower depths. It wasn't funny then," he added.

He reflected back to the time 53 years ago when he first worked with Tómas MacAnna, "Frank, as we knew him", with "the incomparable Hilton and Míceál", and with Phyllis Ryan's Gemini company.

He paid "special tribute to the Smirnoff vodka people" for teaching him the basics and he remembered "dear Ray McAnally, a friend from 1947 to the day he died".

And there was also his wife, Laurie (Morton), and their children, Miriam and David, whom he thanked for "not walking out during the dramatic parts".

There were also so many writers. "But may I mention one - Hugh Leonard. He wrote marvellous parts for me. And he housed and fed me while doing so."

There was his "spiritual director", Pat Laffan, and Michael Colgan, "who all citizens of Dublin owe".

He added: "His [Michael Colgan's\] blood is worth bottling. Maybe that's why so many want to spill it."

He concluded by saying that, "in the words of Mr Beckett, through Barry McGovern, 'I'll go on and on. And when I finally make my exit, you won't be rid of me. For I intend playing Yorick to the end of time'."

Presenting the award, Des Cave spoke of Mr Kelly as "the greatest stylist this theatre has ever seen, and I don't mean just offstage: bon viveur, boulevardier".

When they first met 33 years ago, he did not realise that he [David Kelly\] had already been in the business for 25 years.

They had first met on the film set of Philadelphia Here I Come at Ardmore Studios near Bray, then at the Abbey, where they had reached from "the heights of comedy by Bernard Farrell to Gorki's lower depths".

And through it all "such warmth, cameraderie, friendship, coffee mornings".

The last time he had seen Mr Kelly act was in a film in which "he disappeared down a laneway, supposedly in Ireland, but in the Isle of Man, when he was naked on a motorcycle".

Speaking afterwards Michael Colgan, of Dublin's Gate Theatre, was moved to eloquence at Mr Kelly's special tribute to him. He recalled that the Gate had received about 20 awards in the Irish Times series to date.

He himself had won three awards.

But "nothing, nothing" compared to the tribute paid to him by David Kelly.

"None of us is in this business for the money. We are in it for the company we keep. And the very best company is David Kelly," he said.