Compiled by
JAMES GIBBONS
Groucho Marx at The Abbey? Close, but no cigar
The foyer of The Abbey was as entertaining as the stage on Thursday evening for the opening of Bernard Farrell's Bookworms. Comedian Sil Fox arrived in a Marx brothers disguise of glasses, false nose and moustache. "I'm here to meet Joe Duffy and I want to see if he'll recognise me. I passed by a joke shop on the way and I just had to get it," he told me. The radio presenter did – eventually. "Imagine, this man is 78," said Joe, "and tonight is his first time in The Abbey."
Sen Marie Louise O’Donnell told me she was taking a break from getting the Government to withdraw amendments. “The Arts is what’s going to save us now we’re broke,” she said. “Economics doesn’t have the stomach for human life. Sen Fiach Mac Conghail is very good at encouraging other senators to go to The Abbey.”
Richard Boyd Barrett maintained he wasn't dressed for a photograph, but I assured him we don't have a dress code. He caught up with Don Wycherley, who is in rehearsal for the Tiny Plays for Ireland, in association with The Irish Times, and Pat Shortt, just back from Sweden where he was finishing filming Life's a Breezewith Fionnula Flanagan. He's putting the final touches to a new live show due out at the end of April.
Who we sawSen David Norris; journalist John Waters; actor Alan Stanford; barrister Colum Walsh, who is taking part in a Valentine's Concert with the Leeson Park Players this evening in the Methodist Centenary Church; Ian-Lloyd Anderson, who is getting ready to star in Alice in Funderland.
From lunch in London to 'Da' in Dublin
The director of the Gate Theatre, Michael Colgan, was in flying form at the opening of Hugh Leonard's Daon Tuesday evening. He had flown in from London where he had spent the afternoon having lunch with the actor John Hurt at the Savoy Hotel. The Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spyactor had thrown a lunch in advance of being awarded the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award tomorrow at the Baftas.
At the lunch were Hurt's wife Anwen, as well as Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, Film directors Stephen Frears and Sir Alan Parker, and Hurt's son, Nick, a budding actor who grew up in Waterford.
Colgan had thought the lunch was nearer the weekend, but Hurt called him to tell him it was Tuesday. Although it was the same day as the opening of Da, Colgan told Hurt he wasn't going to miss it. He made it back to Parnell Square just in time to greet the invited guests.
Christopher Fitz-Simon arrived in a snazzy fur hat. The author wrote a programme note on Hugh Leonard which informed us that Leonard was born James Joseph Byrne. The playwright’s daughter Danielle Byrne was delighted with the production. She currently lives in Dalkey with Wooster, her father’s last surviving cat.
The former editor of Who's Who in Ireland, Maureen Cairnduff, had a tickly throat and asked Gay Byrne for one of his cough sweets.
Ciaran McNamara of Signature Capital and his wife Susan caught up with Aisling Gleeson and her husband the businessman Gerry Purcell.
Wayne Jordan is looking forward to directing Alice in Funderlandin the Gaiety. He arrived with Ian Byrne, a newscaster on Spin 103.8 FM, and actor Marty Rea, who is looking forward to starring in Druid's upcoming D avid Murphy.
Conspicuous by her absence was board member of the Gate Dr Mary Finan, who is over in Harvard doing a course. Mary is no stranger to the Ivy League institution, as she spent some time doing a marketing management course at the Harvard Business School some years ago.
Who we spotted: Eugene Downes; Una Claffey; solicitors Ivor Fitzpatrick and his wife Susan Stapleton; playwright Frank McGuinness and author Joseph O'Connor and his wife, the writer Anne-Marie Casey, who adapted Little Women, which has just ended its run at The Gate.
What we hearda rousing standing ovation at the end for Owen Roe, Tadhg Murphy, Stuart Graham, Ingrid Craigie, John Kavanagh, Stephen Swift, Deirdre Monaghan and Rebecca Grimes
Exploring achievements
of Irish polar heroes
Unveiling a plaque can be serious business. So when the Hon Alexandra Shackleton was doing the honours at the National Concert Hall on Monday for a concert celebrating her grandfather, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and other Irish polar heroes Tom Crean and Francis McClintock, the photographers asked for smiles. She turned to the composer Michael Holohan, whom she was standing beside, and said: “Will you marry me?”
That put a smile on everyone’s face, including that of Simon Taylor, the new chief executive of the NCH. According to Taylor, Ernest Shackleton gave an illustrated lecture about his polar expeditions “in this very hall in 1909”. The concert marked the centenary of the final conquest of the South Pole and the tragic end of Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition in February 1912.
No stranger to Dublin, Alexandra Shackleton read history at Trinity College Dublin, and loves Ireland. Her grandfather left here at the age of 11 when his father got a job in Britain. She told me there was “an expedition going forth next year under Tim Jarvis that’s not been done since Shackleton’s time. It’s called the Shackleton epic expedition and the crew will wear similar clothing to Shackleton’s.”
The celebrations on Monday were presented in two parts, beginning with a series of lectures by Jonathan Shackleton, Dermot Somers and author Michael Smith on the polar heroes. Jonathan’s wife Daphne and daughter Jane travelled from Cavan.
Concert highlights included the actor Barry McGovern narrating extracts from The Irish Timesfrom December 1909, and the world premiere of And Always that Wind, composed by Holohan in memory of Shackleton, Scott and Roald Amundsen and performed by flautist Brian Dunning.
Enjoying the concert were sculptor Imogen Stuart and artists Esme Lewis and Maria Simonds-Gooding, who was there to support fellow Kerry-person Tom Crean.
Two portions of everything please, Neven
The celebrity chef Neven Maguire and his wife Amelda were thrilled to welcome their twins, Conor and Lucia, into the world on Wednesday. No doubt the twins will shortly be on a diet of cordon bleu. It's a busy time for Neven as his Home Chefseries is broadcast on Thursday evenings on RTÉ1. His award-winning MacNean House and Restaurant in Blacklion, Co Cavan, is still booked up six months in advance for weekends. It closes every January, and this year Neven went to the Michelin-starred restaurant at the Amstel hotel in Amsterdam on the lookout for new ideas.
U2 can be a philanthropist
The Edge’s wife, Morleigh Steinberg, is seldom out and about on the Dublin social scene. She turned many heads on Tuesday evening when she arrived as a guest of antiques dealer Chantal O’Sullivan for a cocktail party thrown by The Ireland Funds. The reception was to thank supporters and beneficiaries of the Fund’s Promising Ireland Campaign. The campaign began in January 2009 to raise $100 million (€76 million) by 2013 and it has raised $83 million (€63 million) to date for charities across Ireland. The Taoiseach spoke as did chairman Hugo McNeil.
The Ireland Funds is nabbing budding philanthropists early. On March 6th it’s having a young leaders’ event in the Guinness Storehouse for those aged 25-40. The next generation of philanthropists will make a commitment of contributing according to their means. Director Ireland Caitriona Fottrell told me that there are a lot of young people serving on the boards of charities as it is.
Also enjoying the cocktails were Alison Canavan of Ireland Funds’ Young Leaders group; Kieran McLoughlin CEO of Worldwide Ireland Funds; Maria Fortune from BNY Mellon; Cindy O’Connor from Pieta House.
Isabel’s historic ring
If Brian Cowen were still in the Dáil, his restaurant of choice would surely be the new Isabel’s Wine Bar. It’s in the 19th century Baggot Street townhouse of Ambrose Cox, long ago the landlord in Cowen’s home town of Clara. The restaurant is named after proprietor Ian Keegan’s first daughter, Isabel, and is also the basement home of the original L’Ecrivain restaurant.
