`Do you work for the phone company?" a person in pink asks Marcus Valentine, an R&B and gospel singer from New York City. "I work for the man above," he says, pointing skywards. "For God himself."
He cannot mean David Ryan, head of Spirit, the phone company which launched its first mobile phone service with a pink party this week? It is said, of course, that religious groups are some of Ryan's biggest clients. "We live by the Buddhist principles," says a smiling Ryan, clad in pink satin from head to toe, in an outfit designed by Marc O'Neill especially for the occasion. "We're taking on the fat cats, Eircell and ESAT, who've had the place to themselves," he adds. The sixth floor of a car park on Clarendon Street has been transformed for the Spirit party. Pinky guests have gathered to celebrate the arrival of Spirit Mobile. Valentine, the man who works for the man above, looks about him: "The people look so laid back - much more than I've ever known in all the times I've been coming back and forth to this place," he says. A girl in a pink Lycra bodysuit goes by eating pink candyfloss. And Valentine continues: "You're coming out of your skins. Their individuality seems to be shining. Thank God for a multicultural society." Amen to that.
More Spirit-linked messages coming up: Naimee Coleman, the singer/songwriter from Dundrum, with long, blond curls down her back, says her next album will be out before Christmas. Lisa Breen, in a pink cowboy hat, is engaged to Paul Fitzpatrick, of the famous hotelier clan, and they plan to get married in March. Jim Corr, pop star, is here too - but in a shiny black suit.