Theatre: Maureen Potter's magic enveloped me personally just once, when she opened a variety-themed exhibition I did for the 1996 Dublin Theatre Festival, writes Stephen Dixon.
Though clearly not in the best of health, she had everyone at the opening in fits of laughter with a witty, off-the-cuff speech, but what struck me most was the way the guests - a couple of them heavy-hitters in the art world - clustered adoringly round her afterwards, still as besotted in middle age as they had been in childhood, when they watched her from the stalls in panto.
Many of them, I noticed, touched her shyly on the arm, in the way a child might gently dare to reach out to something precious that it can't quite believe is real. They, and the rest of us, loved her because behind the immense talent there was, quite simply, a most lovable person.
As Phyllis Ryan comments in this book, when Potter died earlier this year there were "tears from people who just loved her, who didn't give a button what gifts she had, but knew who she was and where she came from".
What a life! All-Ireland dancing champion at the age of seven, touring Britain with Jack Hylton's band as a child in the 1930s, appearing before Hitler in Berlin, the O'Dea years, Gaels of Laughter, the television shows, the magnificent dramatic performances when she got too old and ill to dance and clown for us.
Deirdre Purcell's collection of tributes from around 100 friends, colleagues and admirers gets a bit repetitive as the great and the good describe how their mums took them to see her every Christmas, but through its pages a portrait does slowly emerge of a tough, committed, emotional, quick-witted and sometimes insecure woman. Her childhood bravery and resilience were drawn upon in her last years, too, when she smiled for us through the pain.
Gene Kerrigan's excellent contribution cuts through the platitudes and sentiment to provide some real meat. He remembers interviewing Potter and her stage partner, the magnificent comedian and dancer, Danny Cummins, in 1980.
It was a time when their vaudeville-based, multi-talented style seemed old hat and Ireland was on the cusp of a new era: Dermot Morgan was starting out and a few years later there would be a different kind of comedy as the likes of Ardal O'Hanlon and Dylan Moran came to the fore.
Kerrigan evokes the stoicism and bewilderment of seasoned troupers who find their world crumbling as the old order changes.
Others with plenty to say about Maureen Potter include Bertie Ahern, Maeve Binchy, Gay Byrne, Joe Duffy, Joe Dowling, Frank McGuinness, Fred O'Donovan, Fintan O'Toole and Nuala O'Faolain.
Artist John Behan has a suggestion worthy of serious consideration: "If ever a person deserved a monument on the streets of Dublin, it is Maureen Potter. It should be something we can all touch, tactile and human - down among the people at street level . . .".
Something we could touch as we passed, something that would make us smile as we continued on our way, remembering Maureen Potter and what she meant to us.
Stephen Dixon is an artist and journalist
Be Delighted: A Tribute to Maureen Potter. Compiled and edited by Deirdre Purcell New Island Books, 269pp. €15