Published: Wednesday, 14th October, 2009 5:00pm
Three men in a boat row into town
by Olga Aughey
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Rory enjoys the Guinness in Mullingar
It was a case of "Cead Mile Failte", or one hundred thousand welcomes for three men in a boat, aka Dara O'Briain, Griff Rhys-Jones and Rory McGrath, who rowed into Mullingar via the Royal Canal.
The three comedians were in town to film the third instalment of a BBC documentary based on the British comic novel by Jerome K Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, which details a journey along the Thames from London to Oxford.
The trio received a warm welcome from the people of Mullingar, who forgot about the recession, if only for 15 minutes, with the Town Band and members of Mullingar Arts Centre Youth Academy, putting on a great show in the Market Square.
Cllr. Ruth Illingworth, Cathaoirleach of Mullingar Town Council, and Cllr. Fintan Cooney, Cathaoirleach of Westmeath County Council, made the formal welcome:
"Cead Mile Failte", said Cllr. Illingworth, who made a presentation of two books, which they would have to share between the three of them, one "A History of Mullingar", and the other "The Art Collection of County Westmeath", which she said she hoped would be a little memento of their visit to Mullingar and County Westmeath.
Cllr. Fintan Cooney presented the three men with three compasses made by Mullingar based firm Genesis.
Rory McGrath then took the stand and said it was the biggest welcome they had ever received anywhere, while Welsh - man Griff Rhys Jones said he was overcome by two emotions, the first - gratitude for the compass, the books, and the welcome, and the second was huge embarrassment:
"We weren't expecting it (the welcome), but now that we're here we revel in it and we say thank you from the bottom of our hearts," he gushed.
Dara O'Briain said it was a pleasure and a delight to be in Mullingar once again, and went on to have a bit of banter with the crowd about St. Loman's losing the County final.
Dara, Griff and Rory had started out early that morning along the Grand Canal, in a boat that went too slow, and passing through parts of Dublin that weren't "the best" according to O'Briain.
The three men then switched to the Royal Canal to make it as far as Mullingar, bringing with them their loyal companion and dog named Snip Nua, who raced in Mullingar Greyhound Track later that night, but who unfortunately was too mean to win!
Three Men in a Boat is due to screened on BBC this Christmas.
