THIS Bloomsday was a particularly special one for Neil Jordan and the Cusack family when the Ire land Fund of Great Britain chose their annual midsummer night's ball to present them with awards for their work. London's Dorchester Hotel was flooded with well wishers, revellers and florist Rob Van Helden's peach roses for the occasion, always a popular evening among the Anglo-Irish in Britain.
Jordan, whose The Butcher Boy is to reach the big screen in the autumn after a preview at the Galway Film Festival, joined Ireland Fund chairman Bryan Hayes and his wife Honor and Irish ambassador Ted Barrington for dinner, while Sinead Cusack, who along with her sister Catherine accepted the award for the Cusack family, dined with architect Sam Stephenson his wife Caroline Sweetman and Maurice Hayes.
Of the blue-blooded, Viscount and Viscountess Linley, Baroness di Portanova and the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough were all there, as were Lord Longford's son, the Honourable Kevin Pakenham and his wife and daughter, Clare and Kate Pakenham; Sir Anthony and Lady Bamford, and Sir Mark and Lady Weinburg. Lady Weinburg is perhaps better known as Anouska Hempel, dress designer and doyenne of the Hempel Hotel.
Irish-born publisher of British Vogue magazine Steven Quinn shared a table with business woman Alice Kissane and her husband Damian Kissane and author Polly Devlin and her husband Andy Garnett: Tony O Reilly jnr was accompanied by his wife Rob n and entertained the administrator of the Ireland Fund in America, Kingsley Aikins and TV presenter Eamon Holmes for supper, while Dermot Smurfit was seated at a table with Sir Nicholas and Lady Lloyd, formerly of the Sunday Express.