A sharp wind whipped around the "box in the docks" threatening to unbalance all those who crossed over its boardwalk.
The Waterways Visitor Centre on Grand Canal Quay, Dublin, was the island-like venue where guests, wrapped up against the cold weather, gathered to applaud the publication of Ingenious Ireland, by Mary Mulvihill this week. Many members of WITS (Women in Technology and Science), which was set up to promote and encourage the participation of women in science, were there to honour their founding chairwoman, Mary Mulvihill.
Broadcaster and writer Dick Warner, came to speak about Mulvihill's "unbelievable curiosity", which, he said, "is like someone peeling an onion, revealing layer after layer, going deeper and deeper into almost any subject she approaches".
Her book is a county-by-county exploration of interesting facts and stories about local history, inventions, oddities, buildings and marvels around the country. "It's a wrist-breaker, this one," he said, noting the weight of the book.
Mulvihill's friends and colleagues at the party in Ringsend also included members of the National Committee for Science and Engineering Commemorative Plaques, such as its chairman, Ron Cox, who is also director of TCD's Centre for Civil Engineering Heritage. Their work erecting plaques to commemorate important scientists and engineers is ongoing, he said. With 60 erected, they want to put up a total of 150.
Peter Mooney, producer of The Future Tense on RTÉ Radio 1, was heading over to DCU for the programme's annual lecture on "why young people should be interested in science and technology". This will be broadcast on Monday, January 6th, 2003. He was there with his daughter, Meabh Mooney (18), who was going to a lecture on Macbeth in TCD.
Patricia Deevy, a former full-time journalist, had just completed her first day in her new job as senior editor with the newly-established Penguin Ireland, headed by Michael McLoughlin. Having interviewed many writers in her last job: "I'll now see a different side of the process," she explained.
Also in attendance were Ena Prosser, a scientiest with the pharmaceutical company, Elan; Clare O'Connor, a lecturer in biochemistry in UCD and Charles Mollan, publisher of The Irish Scientist Yearbook, which is just out, coinciding with Science Week. Soon it was time to head back out into the wintry night.