Eleven years on and the pulling power of the humble mollusc has not waned. The inspired coupling of Murphys stout and mussels worked its magic all over again at the Bantry Mussel Festival.
The festival has grown in step with the multi-million pound mussel industry into an international event. All roads led to Bantry last weekend. In fact, if you tuned into BBC's Webwise programme last night you would have found presenter Kathy Humble following an email trail to the West Cork haven.
The weather was not kind. But down here, clinging to the southwest coastline, the natives are made of hardy stuff. Young children cheerfully braved the elements for the annual fancy dress.
Donal Lunny and the Saw Doctors were among the star attractions pulling the crowds in Wolfe Tone Square. Chip vans were camped in the town but the cosmopolitan approach of the people of west Cork shone through. The only eaterie with a constant queue was a little mobile creperie.
When they weren't eating crepes they were indulging in the free mussels. According to the festival chairwoman, Ms Eileen O'Shea, revellers demolished more than five tonnes of the blue-shelled bivalves. That's a massive 340,000 provided free by the town's mussel growers.
The highlight of the weekend had to be the "Millennium Firecracker" - a worthy successor to the Aer Lingus Skyfest.
Of course shellfish is now big business - and nowhere more so than in the south-west. A local couple, John and Maria Murphy, chose the weekend to officially open their new mussel-processing facility, making their company, Fastnet Mussels Ltd, one of the State's biggest shellfish producers and processors.
The Minister of State at the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Hugh Byrne, cut the ribbon on the 25,000 sq ft plant, located on the waterside at Geahries, seven miles outside Bantry. Fastnet Mussels processes frozen mussels, oysters and fresh shellfish.
Some of the best mussels of the weekend were to be had at this event, cooked by chefs from the new Belgo restaurant in Dublin's Temple Bar.
At the opening, BIM's chief executive, Mr Pat Keogh, said continued investment in the Irish seafood industry was vitally important to coastal communities such as Bantry.
Irish producers sell more than 150,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish products, valued at £170 million, to 14 markets in the EU annually.