Uncommonly good weather this afternoon for an Irish wedding and a brief but welcome reunion with old friends and colleagues. The afters were also a welcome departure from tradition with the usual late-night drunken “revelry” nowhere in sight and everything, instead, wrapped up nicely by 6pm.

It looked like hours of sunshine ahead, so I hopped on a south-bound DART and ambled around Seapoint, Monkstown and Dún Laoghaire as the moon rose over the sea. The sea is absolutely my favourite thing about Dublin – something I’ll write about some other time – and although I still harbour plans to move away, just occasionally you get an evening here as spectacular in its own little way as anything you’ll ever see anywhere in the world.

The route began at Seapoint DART station, where several divers and other water-dwellers were enjoying the Irish Sea. It’s a straight walk up to the east Dún Laoghaire pier, where a steady but manageable stream of walkers and roller skaters mingled under the clear sky. I bought a hot dog and ice cream and made my way out to the end of the pier: a small crowd sat here admiring the setting sun over Poolbeg Station while a lonely few ventured behind the pier wall to savour the far rarer vista of a perfect moon rise.

Here, at the end of the world, a lone banjo player strummed Irish airs for both camps as the light slowly faded.