by Alan Nelson
Last week I was invited to attend the Annual President’s Dinner of CPA Ireland. It is always a pleasure to visit Dublin, where our partners are impeccably hospitable, but this event is a special treat.
This year’s Dinner was held in the dining hall of Trinity College. With its wood panelled walls and pictures of eminent alumni, you could be forgiven for thinking you had walked onto the set of a Harry Potter movie. Both the refreshments and the company were excellent and the evening was topped off by guest speaker, the Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, who impressed a polite but initially sceptical audience of 90 or so of the country’s leading accountants.
When I say that the evening was topped off by the speech, I imply that it was anywhere near finished at the end of the formal proceedings. Being in Dublin, of course, nothing could be further from the truth, as we embarked on a voyage of discovery of Dublin’s central drinking establishments.
I can now share a key lesson I learnt from the trip, in the hope that others may learn from my pain. When at midnight you are asked the question:
“Would you like another drink?” the correct answer is not:
“Yes, I’ll have a pint of Guinness.”
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