At last year’s Blog Awards (2007), myself and the rest of the KKM crew had to cut the night short just after the awards ceremony to cover a few gigs in Dublin. This year, the crew was cut in half, there were no gigs to cover so myself and Ross found ourselves immersed in the 2008 Blog Awards at the Alexander Hotel in Dublin last night. Early in the door (my raffle ticket was 1-5!) and late back to the hotel (some time around 3am possibly?).

While I’ve already posted the list of winners from last night, I did want to flag a few things – mainly being the people I ran into on the night.

The Irish Blog Awards was full of legends. A huge room packed wall to wall with legends. The people in the room are the reason you don’t have to read the newspapers. They are the technology writers, photographers, musicians, food critics, fashion divas, arts lovers, business gurus, political thinkers, sporting enthusiasts and so much more. One cannot get over the sheer power of the Irish blogging community and the respect in which everyone is held amongst their blogging peers.

After missing out on RedMum’s photo walk around Dublin, and failing to hook up with Phil and Andy in Wagamama (due to getting in late, trying to find the hotel and getting ready for the Awards) we did eventually arrive at the Alexander bang on 6:30pm.

Who did I get to talk to?

Paul Browne for a start. About bloody time as well, having missed out on a chat and pint at last year’s Awards. That can of Guinness is still in my filing cabinet and I swear I’ll remember the name of that river! Talk of the night ahead and kayaking over the west was had before being introduced to the first round of beers for the night with Darren Byne and Darragh Doyle – two of the soundest guys you could meet.

After scoffing a few Black Jacks courtesy of the LouderVoice.com sweet bag, I finally managed to shake hands with Conor O’Neill. It’s been too long a time coming! It wasn’t long too before running into David Maybury. Having first met in Kilkenny late last year, I’ve to thank David and Deborah for the aftershow party in Burger King somewhere in Dublin around 2:30am. I say “somewhere” as there was a lot of walking, plenty of joking, and next thing you know I’m sitting down to a burger of some description.

There was chat with RedMum, Phil O’Kane and Andy GoodOnPaper.

Johnny Beirne is a man I’ve to catch up with again and finish the conversation that never really got off the ground – we’ll do it again. I also decided that Marcus Mac Innes is a legend as well. Some mad conversation at the end of the night I’m having trouble piecing together. Needless to say there was a lot of laughing. Plus, I gave him one of the 5 mustaches I won which can be here.

I got to catch up with Nialler9 (who did the double on the Best Music Blog) who capped off what’s been a terrific week, all things considered. AoifeMc bagged herself a gun on the night courtesy and it was nice to make the introduction before the night ran out. The same too goes for Sinead Gleeson, twitter / sunday cooking 2.0 cohort Alexia Golez (who is even nicer in real life as much as she in online, plus she had a kick-ass Thundercats tee on) and Paul Walsh.

I managed to snap Ina on video rummaging for a holiday break… 🙂 How did that work out in the end? Went looking for Sabrina Dent before the night was out – mission accomplished too. There was some strange tattoo checking with The Humble Housewife? After that, things get a little bit hazy.

I can go on, but in fairness I think I wound up talking to an absolute ton of people there on the night. God, I even made the dance floor for the last part of the night – big thanks to Brian Greene for the absolutely solid music through the night. No thanks to whoever kept laying on the tequila…

Mr Mulley certainly throws a solid bash, but it’s the Irish blogging community on a whole that make it happen and make every second worthwhile on nights like last night.

You can catch a selection of pictures I took on the night here on Flickr (will get them on Pix.ie shortly, I was told I’d be killed otherwise).

For the moment, it’s onward towards CreativeCamp this coming Saturday.