Today was about a "moment of celebration", Ireland's president Mrs Mary McAleese told those who gathered to witness the official flag-raising ceremony to welcome 10 new member states to the EU.
It was certainly a celebration dreamed up for television - tightly orchestrated, choreographed and executed. Television floor managers addressed the assembled guests and media before the ceremony to tell them when to applaud during the ceremony.
The heads of state emerged from Aras an Uacharain to beautiful sunshine at 5.33 p.m.
Mrs McAleese, dressed in a bright cerise suit, spoke first of the new Europe, of how we belong to Europe's "most blessed generations". She spoke of transcending our differences, of common visions and shared demogratic values.
She was followed by the Taoiseach who, in his role as President of the European Council, made a declaration to mark the historic occasion.
"Today is a day of welcomes, he said. The day when we welcome 10 new members into our European Union. We welcome them with pride. We welcome them with hope," he said.
He urged those present to reflect on the EU that has been created. "We must never forget that from war we have created peace, from hatred we have created respect, from division we have created union, from dictatorship and oppression we have created vibrant and sturdy democracies; from poverty we have created prosperity."
Mr Ahern said today's enlargement is the best testimony to the success that is the European Union.
He was followed by the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, who read his poem Beacons at Bealtaine specially composed for the day, and by Liam O'Flynn performing the Alpha Quintet on the uileann pipes.
Through the formalities, through the solemnity, some of the 400 teenagers present joked and jeered each other.
They were all members of youth organisations from all over the island of Ireland invited by Mrs McAleese to witness the ceremony. Through the solemnity, many journalists continued to prattle into their mobile phones and to each other. All of them just kids on a day out.
Young flag bearers, each from a different European country but all living in Ireland, presented each of the 26 heads of state with their state flag. The flags were then received by 26 army cadets and taken to the flag poles where they were raised as the RTE Philharmonic Choir sang Ode to Joy. Even some of the journalists were moved.
One notable thing about May 1st 2004 that will almost certainly never be witnessed again: a convoy of double decker Dublin Buses painted in the EU 2004 livery and carrying hundreds of journalists and TV crews, making its way through a deserted Phoenix Park between Farmleigh and the Aras.
On this beautiful, historic May Day, locals must have noted the irony that one of Europe's biggest public parks was closed to the public.
On such a day, when the park would normally be thronged with people, with couples, with walkers, with kids playing football, today it was eerily deserted. Acres of green sealed off and heavily policed.
French President Jacques Chirac is greeted by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at Farmleigh this evening
Tonight, the heads of state will enjoy a dinner hosted by the Taoiseach. They will be served salmon, roast duckling and a "medley" of vegetables, followed by wild berries in a tuile basket.
The wines will be a Slovenian white (Simcic Teodor Belo Reserve 2001) as a tribute to the new member states and a Chateau Lynch Bages Bordeaux, because the former Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch, signed the Treaty of Rome on Ireland's accession to the then EEC in 1973.
Mr Ahern will present each of his colleague heads of state with a pair of Irish silver wine bottle coasters finished with a Celtic knot symbolic of eternity.
The dinner will be followed by a short concert by 10 of Ireland's most celebrated artists, including Altan, Liam O'Flynn, Matt Molloy and harpist Laoise Kelly.