FOR SOME time, Irish Freemasons have been working hard to dispel the popular notion that there is anything secretive, never mind sinister, about their activities.
So when the man at the National Book Fair in Dublin's Masonic Hall said the event had nothing to do with the freemasons, my automatic reaction was to wink at him knowingly, hitch up my right trouser leg and shake hands, tickling his palm with my third finger to indicate I was a member of the Ancient Order of the Scottish Rite.
Disappointingly, he was telling the truth. The National Book Fair is just a book fair and the Masons' only contribution to it is to hire out the hall.
Nevertheless there was a fair amount of hand shaking going on there yesterday and no shortage of secrecy. The open door policy which the Freemasons have adopted in recent years has yet to extend to the world of book dealers, most of whom behaved as if they were sitting on an uninsured first edition of the Ten Commandments.
Michael Herron from Carndonagh in Co Donegal was an exception. He had simultaneously shifted first editions of each of Seamus Heaney's first three collections, which carried catalogue prices of £850, £400 and £200 respectively, and he was only too happy to talk about it.
Michael went to school with Heaney and was feeling particularly pleased with his old school pal. It's nice when it happens like that. It makes the weekend," he said. First editions of Heaney have shot up in value since his Nobel prize and, happily for Michael, the prevailing winds around north Donegal blow a lot of Heaneys into his possession.
Few of the 20 or so other dealers had anything nearly as valuable, and there were many books on sale in the price region of £2.
But Cork trader Michael O'Donnell had just accepted a "bargain" £150 for a volume on the US constitution, dating from the late 1700s. He also reported a brisk demand for anything to do with 1798, as the bicentennial approaches. The fair continues today.