Having the last laugh at the Anglo muppet show

THE SOCIAL NETWORK:The broadcaster Mike Murphy, a former director of Harcourt Developments, caught up with Moya Doherty and her husband, John McColgan, at the opening night of Anglo: The Musical on Wednesday evening at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin.

Sen Shane Ross said he was “really looking forward” to seeing the musical, “but I find it’s unfunny to even consecrate what’s going on. You kind of laugh through the side of your mouth because it’s really a tragedy.”

The Ross household could probably put on their own musical. Ross’s wife, Ruth Buchanan, who used to present Playback on RTÉ Radio 1, said she is passing her time learning piano at the Kilternan School of Music and being a politician’s wife.

The musical’s scriptwriter, Paul Howard, was accompanied by his wife, the solicitor Mary McCarthy. They will celebrate their third wedding anniversary on New Year’s Eve.

Howard said that there was never a question of an injunction to prevent the show going ahead, although the producers did receive warning letters. “It’s high-risk comedy. These are big targets. So the lawyers said it would need certain rewrites. They weren’t that substantial. Some songs were tweaked . . . and the Seánie character was dropped.”

Dr Doireann O’Flaherty, who works in Crumlin Hospital, arrived with her flatmate, the model Roz Purcell. “She’s like the sister I never had,” O’Flaherty said.

Purcell, who managed Newtowncashel in Celebrity Bainisteoir this year, just finished judging on Ireland’s Ultimate Debutante. She is looking forward to her first acting role next week, in a music video for the Dublin indie rock band This Club. “It’s quite a dramatic video,” she said.

The musical parodies former taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, and the current Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, whose character is like a lapdog on the leash of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But things could have been worse for the Taoiseach; the actor Gabriel Byrne could have spoken to the media when he arrived. He didn’t.

Who we spotted:David McSavage; Paul McGuinness; Caroline Desmond; Olivia O'Leary; authors Amanda Brunker and Marian Keyes; Peter Sheridan and his daughter Doireann; Chris De Burgh, his wife Diane Davison and daughter Rosanna Davison; RTÉ's Marty Morrissey; Harry Crosbie