On The Town: Manly, back-thudding embraces, loud bangs as an advertisement stand twice toppled to the ground (as well as the cheers that accompanied each crash), and comedian Tommy Tiernan's striped trousers screaming loudly - all were part of the raucous noise adding to the general chaos that was Hector O hEochagain's world this week.
The venue was 4 Dame Lane and the occasion was the publication party of Ireland's favourite gaelgoir's new book, Hector's World. Family, friends and celebrity cairde turned out for the occasion. Fellow Navan man, comedian Tommy Tiernan, officially launched the book, which is a compilation of stories from the redhead's travels. It has taken five years to put together.
Swapping the stage for a well-appointed table at the back of the room, Tiernan delivered a "set" that went from stand-up to complimentary speech, often managing both simultaneously.
"You don't understand the difficulties of growing up with red hair, and in Navan," joked Tiernan.
The lead singer of the Frames, Glen Hansard, was also at the party, and it often proved difficult for the uninitiated to tell the two redheads apart, while both celebrated under a mass of red curls.
Co Offaly singer Mundy came along, as did some of the friends O hEochagain made during his show, Hanging with Hector. These included TV3's presenter of The Box, Keith Duffy, and snooker player Ken Doherty.
"You have a lovely arse," roared two guys, as they pinched O hEochagain's rear, causing the Navan man to scream out: "Wehay, the jockeys are in!" referring to the two culprits, jockeys Barry Geraghty and Paul Carberry.
After the speeches were over, the flashes had cooled and the nibbles were gone, the party was really going to start, with music to be provided by Galway's Disconauts.
A picture of serenity amongst the nudes
In a room full of nude portraits, it was the painting at the end of the gallery, of a Buddhist monk in his deep red robe, that was grabbing a lot of the attention at the opening of Nick Miller's latest exhibition, Standing Sitting Lying, in Dublin's Rubicon Gallery this week. Amid the nudes, captured variously languishing on couches, perched on chairs or simply standing up, a portrait of a fully clothed monk might seem an anomaly to many, but not to the artist.
"He is more naked than anyone else in this room," said Miller. "His practice is so real, he acts as the kind of fulcrum on which the rest of the work spins."
Among those who came along to the Rubicon were a trio of Ryan sisters, Mary-Kate, Mena and Josette. Josette brought along her husband, Martin Casey, and beautiful baby son Cameron. Artist Pierre le Brocquy came along to the opening, as did Kelly O'Connor and Kerry McEvoy. Actor and author Kate Thompson and artist Mick O'Dea were also there.
Guests with a keen eye might have been able to pick out some of the sitters mingling in the crowded gallery. One of them, Patricia Tsouros, art collector and member of the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, came along, with her daughter Katie.It had not taken much to convince Tsouros to sit for her two portraits.
"No persuasion," she said. "I like Nick's art, and I knew it would be very abstract and dynamic." The end results she described as "fabulous", having already purchased one herself. "We'll have to see if anyone else wants me in their sitting room!"
Other sitters in attendance included the artist's wife, Noreen Cassidy, and writer Gemma Tipton. But the serene monk, the Venerable Panchen Otrul Rinpoche, was not at the opening. What would he have thought of the exhibition?
"He cracked up laughing," said Miller, "when he found out he was in a room full of nudes."
Standing Sitting Lying is at the Rubicon Gallery until Nov 11
Turning out for the fighting Irish
Inclement weather, in the form of steady drizzle, did little to dampen the spirits of the hundreds of guests who turned out this week for the opening of the largest military exhibition of the year at the National Museum of Ireland, at Collins Barracks.
Soldiers and Chiefs: The Irish at War at Home and Abroad Since 1550 has been four and a half years in the making, and will be a permanent exhibition.
From the flight of the earls to Ireland's involvement with UN peacekeeping forces, the exhibition includes more than 1,000 artefacts from Ireland's military history, a range and expanse which the Minister for Arts, John O'Donoghue, who officially opened the display, called "complex and thought-provoking".
The Minister was joined by Ceann Comhairle Dr Rory O'Hanlon, as well as the director of the National Museum, Dr Patrick Wallace, and the chairman of the museum's board, Dr John O'Mahony, as they posed for photographers in front of glass cases containing the uniforms of Michael Collins and Liam Lynch.
There are many heroes honoured in the exhibition but, said Wallace, the hero of the day was Lar Joyce, curator of the exhibition, a statement which triggered a burst of applause from the assembled guests.
Among those who came to the historic opening were the British ambassador, David Reddaway, and playwright Bernard Farrell. Members of Michael Collins's family, who donated artefacts to the National Museum, were also in attendance, as was former taoiseach Liam Cosgrave.
Most of those involved in the exhibition have their own particular favourite artefact or era. For curator Lar Joyce, it is the 20th-century gallery, "especially the 1914-1924 section, which deals with that tumultuous period in our history". The director of the museum, meanwhile, was in no doubt about his, urging guests to go and view the Bantry Boat, a 200-year-old longboat from the French fleet which landed in Bantry Bay in 1796.
"Don't leave without seeing it," he warned. "The French would have given their right tooth to get it back."
A moon which led to Achill
The usual few kind words and a humorous anecdote about the author, which characterise many a book launch, were replaced by a highly complimentary analysis and a thought-provoking critique of an entire genre this week when Irish Times journalist Fintan O'Toole launched colleague Sheila Sullivan's book, Follow the Moon: A Memoir. The venue was the American College, Dublin, a nod both to the author's roots and to one of the book's preoccupations, Irish America.
At times it seemed that someone might be surreptitiously trying to break a world record, or perhaps to answer an age-old question - how many hacks can you squeeze into a venue? - so numerous were Sullivan's journalistic colleagues, past and present, at the event.
O'Toole described the novel as a "genuinely wonderful book" that displayed "the immense technical skill of someone who is deeply skilled in sub-editing". The columnist read the novel on his flight back from Beijing, and delivered a glowing report on Monday.
Sullivan was joined by her husband, New-Zealand born composer and pianist Brent Parker, and her 15-year-old son, Conor. Artist Camille Souter had travelled from the author's adopted home of Achill to attend.
Author and friend Maeve Flanagan came along, as did painter Joe McGee, who travelled from New York for the occasion. A fellow Currach Press author, Brendan Lynch, was in attendance, as was Dublin-based Australian lawyer Susan Frisby. Galway's best-known fresher, Martin Sheen, sent his apologies as he was stuck in lectures until 6.30pm that evening.
As to the genre of memoir, O'Toole quipped that contemporary Ireland's nice, liberal parents may expect to suffer the wrath of their offspring in the future, having given them so little to complain about and thus putting them out of "the lucrative memoir market". For many, O'Toole noted, reading a memoir can supply "our fix of suffering". Follow the Moon, however, is as "an enormously powerful anecdote to that particular notion of what a memoir is".
Follow the Moon: A Memoir, by Sheila Sullivan, is published by Currach Press, €14.99