Sale away

BIDDING at Threshold's charity auction on Wednesday was fast and very good humoured with Brian Coyle whipping up wallet opening enthusiasm for a huge variety of art and celebrity memorabilia.

Busiest bidders on the night were Vi Lawlor Noelle Campbell Sharp and Renata Coleman, and visitors to Renata's Humewood estate in Wicklow can look forward to sampling the vin de table favoured by our leaders in the Dail restaurant. A case of the French wine which has the official harp on the label went for £150.

Banker Tony McPoland bought Gay Byrne's tie for £50, while Bertie Ahern's neck wear only managed to raise £20. (Admittedly Bertie's tie was the less attractive a pink and grey polyester number he wore when he was 16.)

Furniture man Peter Flanagan walked off with a walk on part in Glen roe for £80, while Wicklow resident Prince Prospero Colonna bought a walk on part in Fair City though he later admitted that it was a present for his daughter Vittoria. Newlyweds Michael Carey and Alison Cowzer, who are just back from their Caribbean honeymoon, snapped up a midweek break in Marlfield House, while an oil painting by Terry Keane went for £100.

By the time the final item a copy of the Downing Street Declaration signed by Albert Reynolds was knocked down for £150, the extremely hardworking Threshold fund raising committee had reached its target of £10,000.