On the Town: It was a roll call of some of the best-known faces from Leinster House. There was barely standing room as the resident politicians and political correspondents of Dáil Éireann squashed into the upstairs bar of Doheny & Nesbitts in Dublin to mark the publication of The Naked Politician, by Katie Hannon this week.
Among those who attended were Labour Party leader Pat Rabitte, Ruairí Quinn TD; former taoiseach, Albert Reynolds; Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell TD; Labour Party deputy leader Brendan Howlin TD, Fianna Fáil's Eoin Ryan TD, John Cregan TD and John Carty TD; Tom Parlon TD, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance and from Killarney, Sen Paul Coghlan.
Hannon, who works on RTÉ's Prime Time programme, is a native of Duagh in north Kerry. "We stick together in Kerry," said one Co Kerry native, Sen Joe O'Toole when he arrived. Jimmy Deenihan TD, another Kerry man, was also there.
Sen Kathleen O'Meara, who was interviewed by Hannon for the book which examines why individuals go forward for election to the Dáil, hadn't seen the book but, she said: "I'd trust Katie. She'd never let you down".
Hannon interviewed a range of individuals for her book. Among those who were the most forthright and colourful, "because they didn't have to worry about getting re-elected," she explained, were former TDs, Moosajee Bhamjee and Ivan Yates.
Many colleagues from RTÉ came to congratulate Hannon, including News at One's Seán O'Rourke, newscaster Eileen Dunne, Prime Time's Mark Little, whose own book, Zulu Time, was published recently and political reporter David McCullagh.
Other journalistic Dáil colleagues included Stephen O'Brien, of the Sunday Times, Stephen Collins of the Sunday Tribune and Niall Ó Muilleoir, former Fine Gael press director.
According to Irish Times columnist and broadcaster, Vincent Browne, who launched The Naked Politician, Hannon's book "captures the culture of Irish politics exquisitely . . . It shows how politics is guided by a hidden hand down the byways of side issues, fake crises, personal conflicts and public relations".
The Naked Politician by Katie Hannon is published by Gill & Macmillan. Review by Ruairí Quinn: W10