Off to Rathmines to meet the bohemians and to celebrate the publication of a new visitor guide to the Dublin 6 area, from SixMag Enterprises. It's also a party for the editorial team of the monthly magazine, SixMag, which has just put its latest edition to bed. As we arrive, all heads are buried in the pages of its cannabis issue.
"This is the bohemian area," explains one of the magazine's contributors, Lorcan McGrane, from Rockcorry, Co Monaghan, looking around at the salubrious environs - we're in Rody Boland's bar, on Upper Rathmines Road. Dee Cunniffe, a graphic designer, nods in agreement. Graeme Hunter, a Dublin DJ, is not so sure.
Shimmy Marcus wrote most of his film Headrush, which goes into production in new year, in Rathmines. Garry Lewis, the BAFTA-nominated actor who played the father in Billy Elliot, is signed up to star in the feature film. Also here is Joel Conroy, another film-maker, who is off to shoot footage of big-wave surfers taking part in the Quick Silver Masters in Bundoran, Co Donegal this weekend.
Limerick man Gary Byrnes, publisher and managing editor of SixMag, is pleased to welcome us to the party. His daugther, Tara Byrnes (6), checks our invites at the door with Mary Meaney of SixMag.
"Our mission with the magazine is to change society," he says, with simple humility. Yes, Byrnes is irreverent, says Seβn Byrne, president of the Rathmines Chamber of Commerce and manager of the local Bank of Ireland, who launches the guide and the magazine.
The magazine has focused in one issue on sex and in another on drugs. "I'm waiting for the rock 'n' roll issue," says Declan Martin, of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Well, it's only around the corner.