As an all-round "leg" (as in legend), Castlerock school rugby hero and über-southsider, Ross O'Carroll Kelly has spent his life being the centre of attention.
It was appropriate, then, that he was on hand to unveil the new canopy at the Olympia Theatre in advance of his big night.
Not since he celebrated being the new proprietor of Lillie's Bordello by leaving Bono fretting in the queue outside has the self-styled Rossmeister General created such a buzz around town.
Wearing his trademark southsiders uniform of a Leinster rugby shirt, chinos and Dubarry shoes (Dubes), Ross made flesh, the actor Rory Nolan, said the new canopy was "the second-best-looking thing in Dame Street" (after himself, of course).
The 110-year-old canopy was a time-honoured feature of Dame Street until it was destroyed by an articulated lorry in November 2004. As a protected structure it had to be restored rather than replaced.
The remaining parts were shipped to the original foundry in Glasgow where the canopy had been manufactured in the 1890s.
However, Heritage Engineering, the company involved, went into liquidation, further delaying the restoration work.
The €300,000 cost of restoring the canopy has been met by the Olympia Theatre, which is owned by MCD promoter Denis Desmond, and by small contributions from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and Dublin City Council.
The occasion of its unveiling was the opening night of The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger, a play starring the character who has been the subject of seven bestselling books and a long-running column which now appears every Saturday in The Irish Times.
Fact meshed with fiction as some of those those regularly namechecked by Ross were all invited to attend the premiere.
The Irish rugby team were invited to pay homage to one of their own as were some of the real-life "hotties" who have all been in their time the subject of Ross's unrequited fantasises.
The play sees Ross on something of a downer. His wife Sorcha (played by Lisa Lambe) has, like, oh my God, left him after he was found carrying on with the Belarussian nanny, his despised father is in jail and Ross's financial legacy is in jeopardy. He is also down to his last 20 grand.
It is the first time that the character, which hitherto has only existed in print, has been dramatised.
Ross's creator, Paul Howard, said he was excited rather than nervous about last night's opening night, given the response to the preview shows.
"People were just doubled over laughing which is hugely gratifying for a writer because you live in a vacuum. That's validation for you," he said.
"It was pretty clear that everybody who came had read the book or the columns and they have their own preconceptions of what Ross is like, or what Sorcha, his Mum and Dad or Ronan [ Ross's son] are like.
"Every single one of the actors met those expectations at the previews. It is really an extraordinary thing. The audience was with them straight away.
"I'm going to find it difficult to write Ross O'Carroll-Kelly without picturing Rory.
"He is the living manifestation of the character that has been in my mind for the last nine and a half years, and it is a really difficult thing to do what he does. I just bow to these guys," he said.
The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger runs until December 5th at the Olympia.
