On the Town: It was a night to applaud both the stars and their muses - the poems and the poets. Faces at the launch of Voices and Poetry of Ireland included actor Mick Lally, singer Liam Clancy, Riverdance producers Moya Doherty and John McColgan, artist Robert Ballagh, trade unionist Des Geraghty, broadcaster Marian Finucane . . . and many more.
Each one has chosen and read their favourite poem for inclusion in the book and CD anthology.
Many of the selected poets, including Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, John F. Deane and Moya Cannon, also came along to the celebratory party, which was hosted by Dermot Gleeson, AIB chairman, at the AIB bank centre, Ballsbridge, Dublin, this week.
All the proceeds from the book and CD, which features contemporary Irish poems chosen and read by over 100 well-known Irish people, will go to Focus Ireland.
Guests also included Paddy Cole, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh and Caroline Corr with her father, Gerry Corr, who wrote, First Annual Report, which is included in the collection and read by his daughter Andrea Corr.
Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, founder and president of Focus Ireland, who officially launched the anthology, was also applauded when she spoke about "the broken people", who are helped each year by the charity, which she established in 1985.
"They are people who are troubled. They are victims of victims. I regard the people who come to us as inspiration, just the way poetry is. They come to us in the raw, they don't have the jargon, the clothes, the money, that we all use to defend ourselves, to hide the rawness in us.
"They reveal themselves to us in a tremendous act of trust. And when they reveal this, through our own weakness we are touched in our own fragility and brokenness. And we are able to help that broken person to find their self-respect and their self-esteem. Behind the poor person there's an inner beauty waiting to be born." Once you have discovered this, she said, "you never turn back, that's your life".
Brian Molloy, managing director of Lunar Records, came up with the fund-raising idea. "It was a massive undertaking," he said. "It's the culmination of over three years work."
He paid tribute to poet and Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College, Brendan Kennelly, who has written the foreword of the book, and to Judy Cardiff, co-ordinator of the project.
Others at the launch included actor Niall Toibin, Noel Harris, brother of the late actor Richard Harris, broadcaster Larry Gogan and tenor Owen Brady.
Voices and Poetry of Ireland, a book and CD anthology, produced by HarperCollins Publishers and Lunar Records (€35)