"To say the RTÉ presenter and architect added to the gaiety of the nation is true, but it's not the full story I first met Hugh Wallace at the opening of a new hotel. I can't remember which one. It was the early 2000s - there were new hotel (and bar and restaurant) openings every week, it seemed."
"Someone (again, I can't remember who exactly) was being very pompous about the hotel and what it "stood" for. Hugh, whom I didn't know, was sitting opposite me, nodding politely along. And then he caught my eye and, in the drollest, wickedest way, rolled his own to heaven and back."
Hugh Wallace was an RTÉ presenter and architect who brought visible gaiety and incisive humor to public life. He combined professional presence with a private, mischievous wit. In the early 2000s he attended frequent hotel, bar, and restaurant openings. At one such opening he sat opposite an overly pompous guest who spoke grandly about the establishment's significance. Wallace nodded politely while observing, then caught a companion's eye and, with a droll, wicked gesture, rolled his eyes to heaven and back. That reaction revealed a playful irreverence beneath public conviviality.
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