On Tuesday, Cothu, the business council for the arts, held its first members' evening of the year, with some 80 folk turning up at the Merrion Hotel with briefcases and brollies at 6 p.m. "This is our biggest ever turnout," said Brigid Roden, chief executive of Cothu. Lochlann Quinn, deputy chairman of Glen Dimplex, gave a personal tour of the hotel's collection of paintings, which he has loaned himself.
"Eighteenth-century paintings don't do a lot for me," he announced briskly, "but you'll see some here all the same. I wanted to represent each century these buildings have been occupied."
Among the people admiring the Paul Henrys, William Scotts, Louis le Brocquys et al, were Jim McNaughton, managing director of Tile Style, who had a party of 14 guests with him. Also there was Mike Murphy, who will be finishing with The Arts Show in May. Any word on his replacement? Not yet, but Murphy said: "It won't be like The Late Late Show, I'm taking the brand name with me - The Arts Show will finish with me!"
Everyone then went across the road for a tour of Government Buildings, where Evie Hone's stained glass window, Four Green Fields, was the main attraction. Among those tiptoeing quietly up the stairways of power - the Cabinet was sitting late behind closed doors - were Alan Ashe, general manager of Standard Life; Michael Maughan, chairman of the Gowan Group; Barney Whelan, PR manager for the ESB; Jerome Hynes of the Wexford Opera Festival; and Richard Bar- rett, director of Treasury Holdings. Afterwards, there was supper back at the Merrion.