It's a beautiful noise in 37 as Bono sings novel's praises

THE SOCIAL NETWORK:When Bono started singing Neil Diamond's It's a Beautiful Noise on Tuesday evening at 37 Dawson Street, there were a few who considered joining in before realising that this was a rare opportunity to hear him sing live.

He was launching a book called Beautiful Noise, the debut novel of the Dublin writer Helen Seymour, a friend of Bono and Ali Hewson since they worked on the Shut Sellafield campaign in Seymour’s previous career in advertising.

Bono is lending support all around town at the moment, recently attending the art opening for Guggi, his childhood friend from Cedarwood Road in Dublin 9. Guggi attended the book launch with Gavin Friday and was sitting at the private whiskey bar downstairs with another friend from the early days, the optician Reggie Manuel, who keeps the whole gang in specs.

The fashion designer John Rocha was there for “one drink with people I love, before I go back to work”. He is preparing for London Fashion Week, which starts on Friday. He may have spotted one of his designs on Kate Gleeson, owner of the former Diffusion boutique in Clontarf, who was chatting to JP Donnelly, chief executive of Ogilvy Ireland, and Peter Lennon of Maples and Calder.

Seymour thanked her mother, Iris, an artist, for all her support, as the writer moved back into her Howth home six years ago, taking a job at a local restaurant to focus on writing. It was a good gamble: the film rights to the book have been snapped up by the Hollywood director John Moore, who is currently in postproduction on Die Hard 5.

Who we spotted:Karen Koster from TV3; Hazel McClean, a former teacher of Seymour from Burrow National School in Sutton; comedian Barry Murphy; Niall Stokes from Hot Press; and Susan Hunter from Principle Management.