IT'S a long time since the gallery at the Guinness Hopstore has been packed for an opening (it's a venue that's not known for being flaithiulacht in the wine and canapes department). However it was very busy on Tuesday night for the opening of artist Eimear O'Connor's new exhibition. Her singer-songwriter sister Sinead was invited, she said, but couldn't come over from London. There were plenty of O'Connors in attendance however, including her novelist brother Joe and her younger brother John.
A major draw on the night was Ben Kingsley, an old friend of Eimear's who arrived to launch the show. She had the decency to blush profusely as the actor sang her praises before, as he put it, "doing a bad mime of cutting the tape". Afterwards, the party continued on the top floor of a pub in Francis Street which the family had booked for what Eimear described as a "real O'Connor wingding".
