Clodagh Finnegan told a rambling story about vomiting on her hair extensions at a party.

Richard and Barry engaged in casual raillery with some Merrion Academy boys.

‘It’s gonna be a good night, lads,’ Stephen O’Brien said, raising a glass.

‘Legend,’ Clodagh Finnegan said.

Dave Whelehan arrived. He and Stephen manfully embraced. Dave bought a round of drinks.

Richard registered complacently the admiring looks that Laura drew from boys and girls alike. He took her to a quiet corner of the beer garden and spent a short time kissing her.

Richard looked around and saw Carl Cox and Jason Freeman and Liam Byrne and Simon Stapleton and Brendan Doherty and Michael Reddy and Ronan Toomey and Colm Kennedy and Fionn Doyle. He saw Debbie Lonergan and Jodie Regan and Kelly Finn and Aoife Walsh and Ciara Fagan. He had played rugby with or against every one of the boys and he had scored or slept with most of the girls.

All of these people would later end up in Harry’s Niteclub in Blackrock.

In Café en Seine on Dawson Street Conor Harris ordered his first drink: a Diet Coke. He wanted to be sober when Lisa McKeown arrived. Lisa was a pretty girl, and Conor wanted to be able to flirt with her without embarrassing himself.

According to the coroner’s report – the first, contested coroner’s report – Conor’s blood alcohol on the night he died was consistent with his having consumed four or five pints over a period of about six hours. In other words, he didn’t start drinking until he got to Harry’s. And remember: he was a stocky guy, a former scrum half for the Brookfield SCT. The point of this is that he wasn’t drunk. He wasn’t flat-out falling-down hammered. I saw Conor drunk. After five pints you wouldn’t have noticed any change in his behaviour. He could handle his booze.

So could Richard, generally speaking. But by the time he got to Harry’s, he had had an awful lot to drink.

At 9.20 pm Conor, Fergal, Lisa and Caroline stepped off the DART at Blackrock station and walked the short distance to the door of Harry’s Niteclub. The bouncers sized them up and let them in.

Conor had planned to spend the evening gently flirting with Lisa McKeown, but as soon as she had arrived he had become unaccountably depressed. The plan had been that Conor would act as wingman while Fergal pursued Caroline Smyth. But it turned out that Caroline had a boyfriend in America – ‘Fucking boyfriends in America get all the fucking hot birds,’ Fergal complained to Conor while the girls were in the bathroom. Conor decided that he would take it easy on the drink and go home early.

This changed later, when he saw Laura Haines arrive on the arms of Stephen O’Brien and Barry Fox.

At 9.45 pm Fergal Morrison got chatting to a St Anne’s girl named Joanna Carruthers. Conor did his best to entertain Caroline and Lisa. He told them some rugby stories. The girls giggled and told him he was a rugger-bugger. Conor told the girls that if he was a rugger-bugger then they must be rugger-huggers. This was an old joke. Conor wasn’t using his best material. He didn’t see the point.