On the Town: In a stroke of excellent timing the introduction of the smoking ban coincided with the launch of cardiologist Prof Risteárd Mulcahy's new book on the benefits of exercise at Newman House in Dublin. "Today is a very significant day," said Prof Mulcahy, who set up the Irish Heart Foundation in 1966.
"There's a rumour that Micheál Martin picked today because of this launch," he joked, before going on to praise the Minister for Health. "He has put this country on the map and made a very courageous decision," he said.
The author of Improving with Age: What Exercise Can Do For You said he used to smoke but stopped when he was 39. Now, said the slim and fit-looking Prof Mulcahy, who will be 82 in July: "I'd walk three or four miles every three days, play golf at least twice a week and I cycle a good lot around the place."
Friends who came to the launch included Prof M.X. FitgGerald, dean of the faculty of medicine at UCD, Eric Guiry of TCD's careers service, Prof Leslie Daly of UCD, and Prof Ian Graham of Tallaght Hospital. Dr Jack Molony, a retired rheumatologist, who has known Mulcahy since they were medical students in the late 1940s, was there with his wife Denise Molony.
Enjoying the evening were the author's wife, Louise Hederman and his brothers, the artist Seán Mulcahy and his wife, Rosemarie, Pádraig Mulcahy, a retired quantity surveyor; and his sisters, scientist Elizabeth Berney, and couturier Neilli Bacon with her husband, Tom Bacon.
"It's a beautifully written book," said the writer Ulick O'Connor who launched the book, which is published by Liberties Press. Michael Moriarty, a consultant oncologist at St Vincent's Hospital, recalled the impact Prof Mulcahy had on him when he began work in the hospital. "Suddenly it was all interesting and great fun," he said. "He was so stimulating for me, who was 20 years younger. He was a flamboyant, fun and exciting character," he said.