THE mining magnate would have been pleased. A guide to the treasures he collected over 65 years was launched at the library named after him, the Chester Beatty, earlier this week.
Dr Tom Hardiman, chair of the library's board of trustees, was first to speak at its launch, calling us to order to hear the speeches. We grew silent in his presence, especially as he was wearing his neat Asahi Ku Nito pin, which declares him a member of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun.
"It's the perfect Christmas present," said Philip Furlong, secretary-general of the Department of Arts, Culture, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, deputising for the Minister, S∅le de Valera. Michael Ryan, director of the library, welcomed one and all.
A number of national directors were there to support the launch too, including Brendan O'Donoghue, director of the National Library and one of the Chester Beatty Library's trustees.
Raymond Keaveney, director of the National Gallery of Ireland, and Dr Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, were also there. Marie Redmond, professor of computer science at Trinity College Dublin, was there too, to applaud the new publication from Scala Publishers, which features over 138 colour plates
Brian Nason, of the Department of Foreign Affairs, was spotted, along with former taoiseach Dr Garret Fitzgerald.
Declan D'Estelle Roe, a teacher at Rathdown Secondary School in Glenageary, and his wife, broadcaster Teri Garvey, attended. So did Pauline Tierney, who met up with her successor as chair of the Friends of the Chester Beatty Library, William Aliaga-Kelly. Volunteers attending the library bash included Vera Murtagh, Jack Fitzgerald, Mary Neville and Yoko Wakabayashi, who is from Toyama in Japan. The work of the 35 volunteers in the library is co-ordinated by Marisa TomΘ-Valiente, from Madrid.
Then it was a wrap, and we all dug into the dolmades and olives. A feast before we went back out into the cold.