David Marcus stood to address the expectant gathering in the National Museum on Kildare Street, Dublin. All leaned their ears in close to listen to him carefully. "It's one of the very best novels by an Irish writer that I've read for a long, long time," said the literary talent-spotter who gave so many young writers the initial push-start they needed when he published their work in the Irish Press throughout the 1970s and 1980s. "It's a tremendous achievement and it gave me such a pleasure to read it."
Jamie O'Neill, the new discovery, was too emotional to speak at the launch of his book, At Swim, Two Boys. The Galway-based author wrote his novel while working as a hospital night porter. His friend, Julien Joly, was there to applaud. Other friends who came to toast his success included Niall Simmons, Margaret and Keith Johnston and Jessica Fortune, a phlebotomist from Ashford, Co Wicklow.
Gianni Fazzone, from Turin in Italy, was busy taking photographs for Gay Community News. He zoomed in on Kevin Downey, an event manager based in Galway because, he said, "he's the sexiest man in the whole place". The writer, Michael O'Sullivan, who is writing a biography on Sir John Lavery, was also there, as was Dr Anthony Roche, who lectures in drama at UCD, along with writer Colm Toib∅n and actor Barry McGovern, who read from the novel all through the week on RT╔ Radio 1.