It's not every day that you get away with calling someone an oldie, but with Irish Times columnist Diarmaid O Muirithe it's not only allowed, but a compliment. After William Trevor raved about his last book, The Words We Use, publisher Richard Ingrams asked Diarmaid to write a column for his magazine, the Oldie.
First though, he had to go have lunch with Brian Nolan and Auberon Waugh: "I couldn't compete on wit, so I just got bawdy!" grinned Diarmaid at the party celebrating his new book, A Word In Your Ear.
The family and friends at Thursday's party in Four Courts Press's offices off Fumbally Lane included Diarmaid's sons, Donncha, a journalist, and Aifric, a teacher; Maurice Manning, who made the official speech; Pat Gallagher and Cliona de Bhaldraithe of UCD; Liam de Paor, who will shortly be bringing out a weighty tome about his archaeological work on Inis Caltra; Brian Lacey, curator of the Derry museum, and Garech de Brun of Claddagh records who recently celebrated the 96th birthday of his father, Lord Oranmore, in Paris.