Novelist, journalist, lyricist, bon viveur, no mean cricketer and quiz champion - if you'd heard the list that Michael Colgan reeled off at the Gaiety theatre on Wednesday night you would be forgiven for thinking he was describing several men and not just one. But all the friends of Fergus Linehan, who had gathered to help him celebrate his second novel, The Safest Place, knew exactly the qualities to which he was referring and greeted each one with a resounding cheer. The venue, and indeed the guest list, were peculiarly apt - the novel is set in the world of variety theatre and there were more than a few actors packing out John B's bar in the Gaiety, itself home to countless variety shows. Maureen Potter, the doyenne of so many shows, was there and a big group in the corner comprising the cast for the Christmas panto were trying to lure her over to give them some tips.
Bosco Hogan, an old pal of Fergus's, came along to help him celebrate; he has just finished filming the next series of BallyK and will be heading into a new series of The Cut with RTE shortly. Niall Buggy's appearance was short but sweet as he had to head back up to the Gate theatre to put on his Uncle Vanya robes. Old Father Ted co-conspirators Pauline McLynn and Frank Kelly were having a chat by the bar. Frank will be coming over all operatic later in the month as he has taken a non-singing role in Opera Ireland's new production of Die Fledermaus in the Gaiety. Directed by Austrian Kurt Palm, who made the film version of At Swim Two Birds, this is the Bat's Revenge as it has never been seen before - beehives, miniskirts, gogo boots and a 1960s pool party are all promised.
Other actors included Colm Meaney, Garett Keogh and Ronan Wilmot, who has just finished shooting a Short Cuts film called Flush with his son David Wilmot and Cillian Disco Pigs Murphy. The other actor notable by her absence was Rosaleen Linehan, Fergus's wife of many years - she is currently in Los Angeles appearing in Joe Dowling's production of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan. However, there was plenty of family there to support Fergus on the night, including sons Fergus and Hugh, and daughter Evanna, whose baby daughter, Rosie Stebbing, nearly stole the night from her proud grandfather.
A lasting voice
It was just as well that the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, was there to amuse the prospective buyers at Martin Mooney's exhibition opening in the Solomon Gallery on Tuesday evening, because there were very few of Mooney's works to be had. Mind you, there could have been a bit of schadenfreude in Chris's very amusing speech as he was one of the lucky few who had managed to snaffle one of the medium-sized canvases of Rissani in Morocco. Not that he was just jumping on any old bandwagon - he had picked up a Mooney painting of St Stephen's Green in 1993 and said he had been looking to expand his collection ever since.
Patten must surely be one of the only people who could say with absolute truth that being asked to the exhibition opening was the best thing that had happened to him since the end of the British Empire. In his speech, he described the 1997 handover when he sailed off in the HMS Brittania, through a Naval guard of honour, to arrive at Manila with a 21-gun salute performed, as he discovered later, with live rounds. When he arrived back in Heathrow, he said he and his family tried in vain to hail a taxi home from the kerbside.
Having such a polished speaker at the exhibition was also rather apt considering the artist himself has had no voice for the past two weeks. "Delighted," he managed to rasp out with a grin, before his voice failed him again. He and his wife Trudie Mooney had driven down from Donegal with artist Derek Hill that afternoon.
There was a fine clutch of artists there to help Martin celebrate, including Louis le Brocquy, who has a collection of watercolours and engravings opening in the Taylor Gallery later this year, his wife, artist Anne Madden, and their son and agent Pierre le Brocquy. Lindy Guinness, who accompanied Martin on the working trip to Morocco that produced many of the works in both his exhibition and in hers, which was also at the Solomon, earlier in the year, came along to check out the work.
Other guests included a brace of Quinns - Ruairi Quinn, leader of the Labour party and his brother Lochlann Quinn, deputy chair of Glenn Dimplex and a part-owner of the Merrion Hotel. An old pal of Chris Patten's from Hong Kong days, Leo Goodstadt, had taken over one of the penthouses of that hotel for his time in Ireland. Frank Flannery, the chief executive of Rehab, was there with his wife Marguerite MacCurtin; Tony O'Reilly jnr was there with his wife Robin O'Reilly, and the Belgian ambassador, Louis Fobe, was there with his wife Francine Fobe.
After the show, many of the guests headed back to what was to be the "Last Supper" at gallery owner Suzanne Macdougald's Havelock Square place. After many years of hosting supper parties in Dublin, Suzanne is selling the house and moving to Kildare.
Full of Krapp
Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett is obviously a play held dear by many of Dublin's thespians. When the Royal Shakespeare Company's production opened in the RHA Downstairs on Monday with Edward Petherbridge at the helm, there was a fine number of theatre folk there to enjoy a favourite piece.
Actor Barry McGovern, well qualified as a Beckett hand, played the part of Krapp two-anda-half years ago during the Beckett festival in New York. Doubtless there'll be more Beckett from McGovern yet as the Gate's Michael Colgan recently announced details of a Beckett festival the company is bringing to the Barbican in London next year. At 17 shows, it will be the biggest Beckett festival ever produced.
At a slightly less professional level, Patrick Sutton, director of the Gaiety School of Acting, had also played the part as his final year show at college in Dartington, in Devon, when he was in his early 20s. He and his crew had T-shirts made up with the slogan "Sutton is Krapp" emblazoned across the front and had a sell-out run. Director Jimmy Fay, of Bedrock theatre company, admitted that Krapp's Last Tape had also been the very first show he had directed when he was 19 and at college in UCD.
Playwright Loughlin Deegan also came along on Monday night. He has recently finished editing The Irish Theatre Handbook and is soon to join the Rough Magic team as company manager. Somewhere along the line, he also has to put the finishing touches to his next play, The Queen and Peacock which will be staged by Red Kettle, in Waterford, next year.
Another party was made up by Harold Fish of the British Council and his wife Barbara Fish. Their guests included Barry Murphy of the OPW and his wife Catriona Murphy; Dr Seamus Smyth of NUI, Maynooth and his wife, Rosemary Smyth; Andre Raynouard of the French embassy; Ignacio Montes of the Instituto Cervantes and Denise Holt of the British embassy.
A gift in time
Everybody has been frantically trying to avoid using the "C" word in the media and quite rightly so, but there comes a time when it's just unavoidable. Christmas. There.
This week, two particularly good treasure troves have emerged - so good that you could almost imagine yourself actually getting the presents bought some time before Christmas Eve this year. Glynis Robins and Cathy White are two Dalkey stalwarts and old friends who put their heads together and came up with the Dalkey Design Company two years ago. Their shops in Dalkey and Roundstone, Co Galway, have been meccas for gift-hunters and the self-indulgent ever since. Recently though, they spotted a short-term lease on a shop in South Anne Street in the block now owned by developer Paddy McKillen. So on Tuesday, the Dalkey Design Company opened its doors in the city centre for the Christmas trade. Check out Glynis's gorgeous knitwear - the most expensive item in the shop is her fabulous three-quarter length coat at £580 but there's plenty more in the shop for less extensive budgets.
Her daughter, Elva Robin's delicate jewellery is already on every fashion junkie's wish-list and then there are Cathy's gorgeous handbeaded velvet bags and Grainne O'Reilly's specially commissioned devore scarves, as well as all sorts of antique china and glass, linens, Cote Bastide bath oil and even antique gardening tools.
The other shopper's paradise is open for one day only so if you want to re-stock your home and pick up a few gift ideas you'd better get your skates on. During the past year, Laura George took time out of her job at Image Interiors magazine and went to live in Toulouse for six months. While there, she collected any number of glorious French antiques that she has transported back to Dublin and which will be on sale in Newman House from 10 this morning.
Perhaps the cast-iron pergola at £3,600 might be a little over generous as a present for your mother-in-law but there are any number of more "gifty" items such as enamel jewellery and boxes, toile cushions, and turn-of-the-century linens. Meanwhile, one-offs like the Louis XVI painted dining table or a roccoco cast-iron cot mean that if you're doing up the house, it might just be an idea to blow all your savings and give everybody selection boxes for Christmas.
Dodds your uncle
Having recently returned from 22 years abroad, Marguerite Dodds decided that her dream 50th party would be to gather all her far-flung friends and relatives together for a big birthday extravaganza. So last night in the Great Hall of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, she threw a fabulous Viennese Ball which was attended by 200 guests, most in authentic Austrian evening dress.
"I specified costume dress if possible, but I never dreamed that people would put so much work into their outfits," she laughed. On Thursday, she picked up the Behan family from Baltimore - relatives of both her own family and the bould Brendan's - who flew in complete with pantaloons and crinolines, hired for the occasion. Flights laden down with period dress also arrived in from Canada, Spain, Greece, Sweden (where Marguerite lived for some years) and the UK during the week, and the courtyard in the Royal Hospital was alive with ringletted ladies and gentlemen looking not unlike Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music.
Marguerite and her husband Peter Dodds have now started their own company, E-Business, which creates on-line electronic shops. Their guest list reflected the wide range of friends they have made both in their time abroad and since their return. There was architect Jim Tuomey who has got the contract for the Rotunda and his wife Colleen Tuomey; Marguerite's sister Antoinette Lynch who works with Anglian Water; Garett Byrne of Inter Active Services who has just returned from an advisory trip to San Jose with Mary Harney; Marguerite's godfather Richard Crofts, formerly of CIE; Mike Tight, the European manager of Orbis who flew from Greece; dentist Richard Gunther, who trained in Dublin but now lives in Canada; Barry Rhodes, managing director of EsatNet, and Robert White of Morrisons Jewellers, for whom Marguerite and Peter have just completed their first electronic shop.
Flash Paris
It was all flashbulbs and flash cars when Conor McPherson's The Weir opened in Paris on Wednesday night. It seemed that all of Paris's beau monde had arrived at the private theatre in the Espace Pierre Cardin to check out this young Irishman who has been produced in London, Dublin and Paris all in one year. The French prime minister, Lionel Jospin was there with his wife. cois Mitterand's widow, Bernadette Mitterand, also came along on the night. The Irish end of things supported by the Irish Ambassador Patrick O'Connor and his wife Patricia O'Connor and by McPherson himself. The female part in the play was taken by the well-known French actress Can- dice Patou, who had a passion for the play having seen it some months ago. The adaptation - which was given the unlikely name of La Fille de Dublin - was by Anne Tagnetti and Claude Baigneres.