IF there's one thing On The Town finds difficult to do, it's getting out of bed on a Sunday morning. And the difficulty arises because Saturday night is usually spent On The Town. Still, with steely determination we headed down to the post-war zone that is Temple Bar on a Sunday morning for the AIB Better Ireland Awards at Eden Restaurant. The initial omens weren't good - Fatboy Slim's Right Here, Right Now blasting intermittently from a stereo, and gravadlax on the menu. Not exactly the best cure for a hangover. Outside, the Sunday morning winds whipped about Meeting House Square and the granite sky threatened rain. It didn't seem to bother the eight-foot ghouls who bobbed about entertaining the children, mind you, but most adults chose to watch from the refuge of Eden's cool interior.
It wasn't long before everyone had gathered inside as Ray Darcy introduced AIB group general manager Kevin Kelly and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who congratulated the bank on its donation of £1 million which, he conceded, "might not be worth quite what it was a few years ago, but I still wouldn't mind having it". He then released a flurry of yellow balloons before working the square. Later, Macnas danced around in colourful costumes, and pop group Dove sang to the delighted kids.
The crowds included Liz O'Donnell TD, her husband and children; Labour leader Ruairi Quinn, broadcaster Joe Duffy, and Veronica Dunne from the Leinster School of Music, one of the judges. AIB was well represented by Walter Coakley of the Strategic Development Unit, Gary Kennedy, group financial director and Michael Buckley, of the capital markets division.