On the Town: All talk in the foyer of the National Concert Hall was of Skara Brae. The group, which recorded just one album in 1970, was about to perform in Dublin for the first time in more than 30 years.
At a gala concert, organised by Antoine Ó Coileáin, chief executive of Gael Linn, the memories flooded back. The hum of anticipation grew in the auditorium and backstage as the four Skara Brae members - Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, her sister Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, their brother Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and Dáithí Sproule - who flew in from Massachusetts for the night - tried to contain the growing excitement they felt.
"They're legendary, it was a seminal collection," said the show's producer, Altan manager Tom Sherlock. "Ní fhaca mé Skara Brae beo riamh," said RTÉ broadcaster Cathal Póirtéir, as he looked forward to his first live taste of Skara Brae.
The night brought a year of celebration, marking the first 50 years of the Gael Linn Irish language organisation, to a close. Gael Linn is also Ireland's longest-established record label.
Other contributors to the concert were Peadar Ó Riada and Iarla Ó Lionáird, Josie Sheáin Jeaic Mac Donncha and Tony Mac Mahon and Steve Cooney. Róisín Elsafty sang about the broken-hearted girl who is left behind when her true love joins the army in the great Connemara sean nós song, An Buachaillín Múinte.
Martina Ní Chéitinn from Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry, especially loved the singing of Ó Lionáird.
Others at the musical event were Eugene Downes, of the Department of Foreign Affairs, just back from South America where he was among President McAleese's entourage, broadcaster Ciarán Mac Mathúna, Angela Bourke, of UCD's Department of Modern Irish, with her mother Rosaleen Bourke, the writer and broadcaster Liam Mac Con Iomaire, Patricia Kelly, Dean of Celtic Studies at UCD and Dr Ann Lavan, of UCD's Department of Sociology.