The antique clock chimes as Eoin Ryan TD, the newly-appointed Minister of State, congratulates the fund-raisers. Their plans to raise money this year to help alleviate poverty in the city are well underway. The trustees of the Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers Society, are proud to be associated with a charity that was founded in 1790.
The sense of a bygone era is strong as the chairman of the society, Dr Peter Gatenby, former professor of clinical medicine at TCD, welcomes us to the house on Lower Ormond Quay, which is older than the society, dating back to the 1740s.
Top of the agenda is their plan to have a ball in two months' time. The long-standing annual event was nearly dropped back in 1877 when it was described as "a vulgar orgy" in the Freeman's Journal, according to Ciara Higgins, of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Roll on Saturday, April 8th when the Millennium Roomkeepers Ball is scheduled to take place.
Ken Langan, registrar of the NCAD, says "our dancing shoes are ready". Trustee, David Lane, a retired surgeon, thinks he'll go too. Another trustee, Bernadette Madden, the painter who specialises in batik pictures, reminds us that they also plan to host a gala piano recital in October - starring John O'Conor.