Dublin-born Christina Noble is well-known in countries including Australia, England, the US, and all over Asia, as a tireless fundraiser for Vietnamese and Mongolian children. Ironically though, charity didn't begin at home for Christina - Ireland was not among the 14 countries that have Christina Noble Foundation offices.
Until Monday evening, that is, when the President, Mrs McAleese arrived at Dublinia in Christ Church to put her seal of approval on the foundation's first Irish branch. The MC for the evening was Mark Mortell, chairman of Bord Failte, and the Lord Mayor, John Stafford and the Most Rev Walton Empey added the imprimatur of church and State.
There were many familiar faces from the business world, including Denis O'Brien and Neil Parkinson of Esat (Neil's wife Eileen is on the CNF board); Derek Ryan of Mercedes, who presented the foundation with a van at a ceremony on Wednesday evening; Una Henry of Bank of Ireland, also a board member, and entrepreneur, Paddy McKillen.
A touch of music was added by the presence of singer Mary Black, who has long been a supporter of the Foundation; Joe O'Reilly of Dolphin Discs accompanying her, and singer Luka Bloom who performs the amazing title song on True Lives - Mama Tina, the documentary about Christina and her work. This programme was premiered at the charity reception on Monday and was shown later in the evening on RTE.
The documentary's director, Stephen Jeffares came over from his Australian home especially for the party. From Australia, he spent several years living and working in Ireland, meeting his Irish girlfriend Jessica Felton, in the process. After reading Christina's 1994 autobiography, Bridge Across My Sorrows, he decided to make a documentary about her and two years later at Dublinia, the gathering applauded the result.
No believer in the idea of leaving well enough alone, Stephen is now beginning work on a feature film, also about Christina, in which Helen Mirren is very interested. "But it's early days yet." Steven Menzies, his co-producer on the documentary also came along for the reception, which was followed by a private showing for family and friends later.