A year ago, Dez O'Neill was up to his neck in the music business in London. Now, he's a campaigner with Earthwatch and the brains behind one of the grooviest parties of the year, the Funk Fundraising Party which took place last night. "I wanted to move back to Dublin," says Dez, "so I thought the best way to make contacts and get involved was to throw myself into a campaign." That campaign was Rock the Vote, a concert which took place last June to support Green Party candidate Ciaran Cuffe, and the result for Dez was a job with Earthwatch and a move to Dublin.
Ciaran returned the favour by helping out on the Funk night together with Litta Notte and party organiser Emma Kelly. It was held in the Cobalt Cafe, which stands out as one of the more interesting of the new venues. Situated at 16 North Great George's Street, the recently opened cafe has settled nicely into the beautifully restored reception rooms of Dorothy Kenny's Georgian home and has fast become one of the trendier cafes of the city.
Apart from the setting, the attractions of the Funk party included a cross-cultural menu dreamed up by must-have caterer, Catherine O'Neill and tunes by DJs Aidan Kelly and Brian Nolan as well as some slightly more civilised piano-playing by Justin Carroll.
Meanwhile, the most interesting, if perhaps not the speediest method of arrival at the party was definitely provided by Quentin Gargan's electric car. Created by Quentin and launched by Earthwatch just a couple of weeks ago, the car is not yet a viable commercial option but is certainly a more ecologically friendly party piece than making giraffes out of rubber balloons.
"Environmental agencies often have a rather outdated image," says Dez. "With Funk we wanted to change all that and provide a good time for everyone too." Mission accomplished.