Anyone who knew the late auctioneer Fintan Gunne seems to think his son is following in his footsteps rather well. Niall Gunne (22) and his friend Neil McKenna both lost their fathers to serious illness - cancer and liver disease respectively - and have decided to raise some serious money to help. They put together a committee (which also includes Niall's brother, 20-year-old Andrew Gunne) and came up with the idea of a Cartoon Ball which will roll tonight at the Burlington Hotel with the aim of raising over £50,000 for the Mater Hospital Cancer Research Trust and the National Liver Transplant Unit. Niall, who is returning to college to complete the remaining two years of an auctioneers' degree course, is a keen rugby player and many of the guests and auction items have a rather sporty flavour. Denis Hickey and Victor Costello from the Irish rugby team will be popping down while racing trainer Jim Bolger has offered an unusual auction prize. The luckiest bidder will get to be the owner of a "superior beast" for a day at Leopardstown race course - if the horse wins that day the money will belong to the lucky "owner". Other prizes include Eddie Jordan's personal racing shirt, which he wore during his team's victory at Monza recently; it's signed by Jordan himself, Damon Hill and Ralph Schumacher and is probably in need of a good wash. There is a baseball cap signed by Tiger Woods and gold dust tickets for tomorrow's All-Ireland game. Apart from the cartoon theme (TV screens, caricaturists and look-a-likes will all be on hand) and the sports theme (see above), there is also, quite coincidentally, a strong "fathers" theme to the guestlist. Indeed at times it will probably be quite eerily like a cartoon called "The Next Generation".
PR supremo, P.J. Mara's son, John Mara is on the committee as is Gina Forte, whose family owns Makullas clothing store. Meanwhile, other guests included Brett Desmond, son of financier Dermot Desmond; Fergal Naughton, son of Glenn Dimplex's Martin Naughton; Katie Magnier, daughter of race horse-owner John Magnier; Robert Barron, whose family owns Pamela Scott; brothers Liam and Neill Durkan, of the Durkan construction group, and Jamie Rohan, scion of the Rohan construction family.