Fashionistas called to the bar

THE SOCIAL NETWORK: There was standing room only at Claire Doyle’s fashion show in the Law Library in Dublin on Tuesday

THE SOCIAL NETWORK:There was standing room only at Claire Doyle's fashion show in the Law Library in Dublin on Tuesday. Barristers and friends of the designer convened in the atrium of the Distillery Building on Church Street in Dublin 7.

James Dwyer SC, president of the Bar Conference of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, presided over a trestle table at the entrance with Jackie O’Brien SC and Caroline Costello SC. Donations were received.

Dwyer, who is the husband of Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne of the High Court, said that the Bar Conference is the second-oldest conference of the SVP in the country.

“Everybody thinks barristers take money for themselves; we also take it for the St Vincent de Paul,” said Costello, who is the daughter of the former president of the High Court, Declan Costello, and granddaughter of former taoiseach John A Costello.

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Doyle’s siblings turned up to lend their support. Her brother, Eoin, flew home from Australia, while her sister, Elaine, took some time out from A L Goodbody, where sheis training to be a solicitor, to catch the show.

Lisa-Kate McGrath won a Claire Doyle suit, which was first prize in a raffle. McGrath, who works in digital marketing, was followed by her mother, barrister Kathryn Hutton of Temple Road in Dartry, Dublin 6, who won second prize.

Who we spotted: Retired colonel Tommy Doyle and Ann Doyle, from Straffan, the designer's parents; Judge Mary Ellen Ring of the Circuit Court; barristers Veronica Gates, Judy Blake and Catherine Lucey-Neale; model and PR executive Hannah Saunders, who is moving to New York later in the summer.

What we drankDavid Frost South African Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz

What we ateCanapes and sausages