WHEN the Irish of home and away get together, it's serious business. On Monday night, the occasion of the hooley was the presentation of the Ireland Funds' literary award to poet and playwright Sebastian Barry in UCD's O'Reilly Hall. Sebastian, who attended with his wife Alison and their enviably quiet new son, Tobias, joked that the £10,000 prize was "serious moola", but his thoughts are now with new work. His next play, Our Lady of Sligo, will be performed by Out of Joint in the Cottesloe Theatre in London and will star Sinead Cusack, while his new novel, The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, will be out next March.
Eneas McNulty, will be out next March.
The Irish contingent featured many of our big money men and women, including Redmond O'Donoghue of Waterford Crystal, Telecom Eireann's Ron Bolger, John Burke of Irish Permanent, and John Daly of ICL. Noel Toolin of the Irish Tourist Board was accompanied by his wife, Elaine Toolin, the new marketing manager at Brown Thomas, and publisher Kevin Kelly was accompanied by his wife, Rose.
The arts world was represented by the National Gallery's Raymond Keaveney, Hugh Lane's Barbara Dawson, The Ark's Martin Drury, poet Derek Mahon and architect Sam Stephenson. Author Brian Keenan chatted enthusiastically about his work on a biography of blind harpist Turlogh O Carolan, and his plans to write about Chile, where he travelled recently with John McCarthy.
There was a bumper crowd from across the water that included Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers; John Sharkey of MCI communications and his wife, Helen Sharkey; Jimmy Murphy, owner of ultra-trendy restaurant Jimmy's in Los Angeles; Claire Cronin who has recently left the family firm - BCA, Advertising to form her own business; Peter Lynch, chair of Fidelity Investment in Boston. Tom Moran, CEO, and Bill Flynn, retiring chairman, of Mutual of America had come fresh from hosting a lunch for Ulster Unionist David Trimble in New York.
Brian and Eileen Burns travelled from San Francisco; always great supporters of the arts in this country, they recently gave 8100,000 to the Hugh Lane Gallery. Turloch McConnell and Charles Dolan of Celtic Vision, the Irish cable channel in the States, combined the Ireland Fund event with meetings with RTE.
Pierre Joannon and his wife Annick came from Antibes, and William Kelly, of Turner Broadcasting, probably had the furthest to travel `as he made his way from Tokyo.
ON THE TOWN
Bite of the apple
THE cloistered calm of Marsh's Library was well and truly rattled when "Eve Revived", an exhibition of early printed books relating to women, was opened on Tuesday. Dr Muriel McCarthy curated the show and also put together a bustling and eclectic guest list: judges Catherine McGuinness and Pat McCartan and Donal Barnngton, added a legal touch; Archbishop Walton Empey and Maurice Stewart, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, added an ecclesiastical note, and Kevin B. Nowlan and Bill Simpson added an academic touch.
Edna O'Brien, whose next book, Last Decembers, will be published next year, charmed the crowd with her impromptu opening speech, and Nell McCafferty was not the only one to think she should be another presidential nominee.
Brenda Fricker described how her sabbatical from acting had only lasted five months, as she starts filming on Joe O'Reilly's Meteor in July. Having refused to play any more mother roles, she now finds herself playing a grandmother.
Carmencita Hederman popped along with her sister Consuela O'Connor who has bundles of plans for the Tailors' Hall as part of its governing board, and Senator Mary Henry, who is campaigning for the Seanad elections, came along with her daughter, Dr Muriel McEntaggart.