It is the prerogrative of the bride always to be late and, with this in mind, Kevin Myers swept into the Dublin Bookshop on Grafton Street for the launch of his first novel, Banks of Green Willow, on Tuesday evening more than half an hour after everybody else.
He blamed his delay on the rain and admitted that it was the second year in a row he had been scuppered by "Kevin Myers book launch weather".
Of course, he was immediately forgiven by the gathering of close friends and distant admirers, who included broadcaster Ian Fox and Jim Harkin, Val Lamb, the editor of Irish Field, and Mary Finan, of Wilson Hartnell PR.
Carrie Crowley, the presenter of RT╔'s Snapshots, introduced Myers by relating how she had asked her listeners to describe him. Their verdict: "Bombastic, arrogant, egotistical, fiercely intelligent . . . and deliciously sexy."
For his part, the author thanked his wife, Rachel - "It is not coincidental that in the years we've been together my fortunes have improved" - and read a sexy extract from Banks, which he says is an "ode to love".
Diarmaid Mac Dermott, of Ireland International News Agency, said: "I think he is a very brave man who writes with an honesty and perception that we don't see much of in Irish journalism. I'm sure it's going to be a great read because he always writes fluently and realises the importance of language."
Treasa Coady, of the Irish publisher, TownHouse, had the unenviable task of trying to stop the controversial columnist from throwing pot-shots at his potential audience.
"As a publisher we are very careful that our authors don't put their foot in it very often," she smiled. "With Kevin, this has been very difficult."
Marie Heaney left poet Seamus at home and was there in her capacity as an editor at TownHouse. She has known Kevin since the early 1970s. "It is amazing he has pulled it off," she said.
Ireland rugby player Emmet Byrne could barely believe his squad pulled off its win against England recently.
But he revealed that behind that success lies a chilling secret: namely the cryo-chamber.
During training in Poland earlier this year, in the name of greater fitness, the team stripped to their shorts twice a day and did a three-minute lap of the cryo-chamber, where the temperature drops to minus 130 degrees centigrade.
"It was worth it," said Byrne. I'll bet.
He was at the launch of Barry Coughlan's book, The Irish Lions 1896-2001, at Lansdowne Road on Monday night.
The lionesses and cubs were left at home and the mood was more a contented post-bank holiday growl than a roar, but among several former Lions queuing up to buy copies of the book, signed by boy wonder Brian O'Driscoll, were Ollie Campbell, Tony Ward and Hugo MacNeill.