Twelve days after their self-imposed incarceration, four pale, bald men and one sheep emerged from their window into the bright light outside Galway's Public Library yesterday to cheers and whoops from a delighted, sun-tanned throng.
They had been a little worried they mightn't make it through the exit. A whole bakery of cakes, pies, tarts and sponges had been delivered to them when news leaked out during the closing stages of the Galway Arts Festival that one of the performers, David Wells, was celebrating his birthday.
But they were well able to fit into four candlewick suits in pastel colours which had been reserved for the occasion and they even had gold cardboard fainnes pinned to their lapels.
"Dia dhaoibh go leir," the leader of Urban Dream Capsule, Neil Thomas, roared, after he and his partners had embraced and kissed and hand shaken their way over to the steps of the Augustinian Church.
There was a short speech, with many thanks to all, and then a presentation of Shauna the sheep to "gorgeous Rose Parkinson", the Galway Arts Festival director.
They admitted that they would miss their "sweet little home", which had been provided for them by Ms Bernie Kelly, the Galway city librarian.
"Nil saru na Gaillimhe ann (there's no place like Galway)," Thomas declared with perfect blas. And then, with a "Gaillimh abu", they displayed the product of their 12 days' employment, a pair of knitted Y-fronts in the national colours, with a shamrock prominently displayed.
Later, at a public forum in the Druid Lane Theatre to which they travelled by horse and carriage they tried to explain what the concept was all about. The "urban dream" was determined by each city, they said. They simply facilitated a public performance which was as much about them observing their audience as the audience observing them.
"To see two strangers talking together outside our capsule is an enormous experience," Neil Thomas added.
The gnomes which they created, painted and released for day trips had proved to be so successful that many potential foster parents were disappointed.
Four gnomes weren't returned at all, and there was a major alert early last week when it emerged that one of them, named Jackie McChan, had been kidnapped. Asked what they intended to do with them, they said they hadn't decided, but might drop them in the middle of Galway bay.
There was uproar in the audience, and simultaneous cancellation of that master plan.
The four, along with their tireless manager, Fiona de Garis, will go their separate ways from today. Neil Thomas is due to perform his one-man Blue Boys act (performed in Galway last year) in Tralee, Co Kerry, this week.
The others will not become tourists this week in Galway, Andrew Morrish said. They couldn't bear to, when "warm, wonderful" Galway had come to them.
