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Compiled by JAMES GIBBONS

Splish, splash at Taste of Dublin bash

The rain left a bad taste in our mouths at the opening of Taste of Dublin in the Iveagh Gardens on Thursday afternoon. The much-hyped Jamie Oliver was nowhere to be seen, having been whisked away to the press tent on arrival. He was spotted outside at one point – and given a taste of a typical Dublin summer.

Brendan O’Connor is no stranger to the rain. A few weeks ago, when the sun was shining here, he was drenched in Italy. He’s looking forward to spending some time in Cork and Kerry in July with his family.

Ryan Tubridy told me that he travelled to Knoxville, Tennessee, last week to surprise his friend Jon Ferrie, whom he hadn’t seen for a while. Ferrie runs the Irish Times Pub Restaurant there. Tubridy went on to Graceland “to pay my respects to the King”.

One man not wearing blue suede shoes on Thursday was the head of Honda in Ireland, Michael Maughan, who arrived from Shrewsbury Road. “It’s a good job I’m wearing rubber soles,” he told me as he navigated the puddles.

JR Ryall, from near Ballyhooly, in Cork, accompanied Myrtle Allen of Ballymaloe House, who was catching up with members of Euro-toques Ireland. Ryall, who graduated from Trinity with a degree in biochemistry, is a pastry chef at Ballymaloe. “He’s been working in Ballymaloe during his school holidays since he was 15,” said Allen.

Rosanna Davison was excited about travelling to Hanover, in Germany, this weekend for a Gerry Webber fashion show. Davison’s friend Gillian Fitzpatrick has just returned from a trip to Ibiza with her husband, James Dargan Ward, who is a descendant of William Dargan, the 19th-century Irish engineer.

Celebrity chef Stuart O’Keeffe, who is based in Los Angeles, was also mingling in the VIP suite. He was nursing a broken arm in a cast. “I was riding a motorcycle when a car hit me,” he said. O’Keeffe, born in Tipperary, has featured on the US TV show Private Chefs of Beverly Hills and is participating in the Kanchi Dine in the Dark pop-up restaurant during Taste of Dublin. O’Keeffe told me that he did the catering at a fundraising dinner for President Obama in the Hollywood home of the Glee creator and director Ryan Murphy earlier this month.

Siobhán O’Connor of 98FM said she was preparing for a Trek4Life, which will take place in Jordan in September, in aid of the Irish Cancer Society.

Who we spottedPaul McGuinness; Glenda Gilson; Glenn Fitzpatrick of Microsoft; Alex Fitzgerald of Irish Tatler Man; 98FM newsreader Brendan O’Loughlin; Riyadh Khalaf of Spin 103