There was Mexican food, Mexican music, Mexican tequila; if you shut your eyes you could almost be there. Rynagh O'Grady and Eamon Murray were there and the party in Mexican ambassador Daniel Dultzin's residence on Tuesday was to celebrate the four-part radio series they made on their travels.
Rynagh, who is an actor working on everything from Father Ted to the National Theatre stage, and Eamon, a musician with his own band entitled Fattenin' Frogs For Snakes, recorded numerous samples of the music and musicians as they travelled down from Mexico to Ecuador and The Sound Of Volcanoes is the result.
Chatting over tortillas on the night were several friends including Fionnuala Hunt, director of the National Chamber Orchestra and member of the Cultural Relations Committee and a fellow CRC member, barrister Chris Meehan, known to many as the head man of Chris Meehan and the Rednecks, a band which Eamon played in. Other musicians enjoying the Mexican evening were pianist Gavin Povey who is currently playing with Dolores Keane and Finbar Furey; drummer Fran Byrne, and Pete Cummins of the Fleadh Cowboys. From RTE came FM3's commissioning editor Seamus Crimmons, Ray Lynott and Bill Meek, while Rynagh's fellow actors, Bairbre Ni Chaoimh, Glenroe's Geraldine Plunkett and her husband Peadar Lambe, also came along. Friends from Wicklow, Jerry and Margaret Mitchell took the night off from their busy Laragh restaurant and chatted about the huge restoration task they have set themselves; they have bought the old dilapidated mill in the village and have plans to convert it into a hotel and restaurant.