Sea trials for the Jeanie Johnston replica famine ship took place in Tralee Bay in Co Kerry for the first time yesterday - two years behind schedule.
However, given that scarcely anyone knew of the event, there were few around the harbour to watch the ship on its watery trials.
The first that Kerry county mayor Mr Paul O'Donoghue knew of the trials was when a group of senior council officials returned to the local authorities' members' association conference, where he was presiding, to say that the gathering's guests from the Chinese delegation had arrived in Fenit just as the boat had slipped its moorings.
Council officials were surprised to find an emptying space as delegates hurried to the quay at Fenit, where the vessel has been moored since 2000.
"I would like to have known," Mr O'Donoghue said.
A spokesman for the Jeanie Johnston company said that yesterday's exercise was by no means an official launching. It was a technical exercise and simply a "trial run" around Tralee Bay.
"No snub had been intended to the council," the spokesman said.
He described the successful running of the engines as a "milestone".
The council owes almost €6 million arising from the project and, amid heated debate, councillors recently voted to invest another €1 million into the ship.
The Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, last month rejected a call by councillors to provide an independent inspector to examine the "overspend" and report on Kerry County Council's involvement with the project.
Later in the morning, Mr O'Donoghue, who is the brother of the Minister for Justice, was more diplomatic about this latest episode in the history of the €15 million project, which has gone over four times beyond its original budget.
The venture has been funded largely by the Exchequer.
Kerry County Council and Tralee Urban District Council are supporting a structured winding down of the project, which they will then take over.
"I am delighted that progress has been achieved. The good thing is that it is out there," Mr O'Donoghue said.
"I wasn't aware and I always like to know what's going on," he explained.
Mr Ian Wallace, a Department of the Marine surveyor, was on board, along with Capt Mike Forwood and other crew members, for the testing of the Jeanie Johnston's engines.
An RTÉ crew was also on hand.
Several other trials - including full sail runs over the coming weeks - will be necessary, a Department of the Marine spokesman said.