The master of Holles Street, Rhona Mahony, arrived a little late to a dinner for “neighbours and friends of Number 25 Fitzwilliam Place” on Wednesday evening. She had just delivered a baby and changed out of her scrubs.
Mahony, who has since left for a short trip to Sierra Leone to make a documentary on overseas aid, caught up with the fashion designer Louise Kennedy, who is holding her autumn-winter 2012 fashion show at her Merrion Square headquarters on Tuesday.
Mahony’s sister Jane, who is married to a former master of Holles Street, Peter Boylan, is also going to Kennedy’s show. Jane was delighted when the writer Katy McGuiness asked her, just after pudding, to contribute to Trinity Tales for the 1980s. McGuinness is a sister of Paul, who is married to Kathy Gilfillan, editor of the last Trinity Tales.
The businessman Gerry Purcell came along with his wife, Aisling. They were at a wedding last weekend at Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey is filmed. Number 25 is owned by the Kelly family, and Michael Kelly thanked the guests. His daughter Fiona, who will run the venue, could not attend the dinner – she is a week overdue in her pregnancy – but her sisters, Clare and Rebecca, greeted the guests.
Who we spotted: Former CEO of ESB Pádraig McManus; managers of Aghadoe Heights Pat and Marie Chawke; events manager Paddy Bollard; Melanie Morris of Image magazine; Patrick Ridge of Panelto foods and his wife, psychiatrist Moya Ridge; designer Jen Kelly