Stealing the show

On the Town: Her name is on no programme and she's barely a year old, yet she stole the show. Did Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue notice the little toddler practising her brand new steps below the rostrum as he spoke about the Galway Arts Festival in the Galway Bay Hotel earlier this week?

She swayed, she fell, she beamed at her new audience as she pirouetted around the room. Was that why the Minister looked a little uncomfortable? Or did he feel somewhat challenged by the stunning suit worn by Paul Fahy?

Fahy, Galway Arts Festival's incoming artistic director, certainly cut the proverbial dash in his white linen apparel; and it must have been a somewhat emotional moment for his colleague, Rose Parkinson, who finishes up as director this year. However, Galway city mayor Cllr Brian Walsh (FG) elicited the loudest applause when he singled out photographer Joe O'Shaughnessy for a special mention.

O'Shaughnessy of The Connacht Tribune and this parish won a World Press Photographers' award this year. His captivating shot of Australia's Strange Fruit troupe, towering on four-metre-high flexible poles over the Spanish Arch at last year's festival, has been on display as part of World Press Photography 05 in the Eyre Square Centre this month . It's not part of the official festival programme, but there was some talk among those mingling on Monday night that it should be.

And mingling there was a-plenty - with Lali Morris, director of Baboró, Galway's international children's festival, and partner Ted Turton, a former festival artistic director, agreeing that there should be far more children's events. The three scheduled sold out several weeks ago. Mary Walsh from Tipperary wondered why An Taibhdhearc, the national theatre for the Irish language, was listed in the "umbrella events" section of the festival programme, with Tine Chnamh by Liam Ó Muirthile