Going home presents!

IT was the first party I've been to (well, since my student days) at which guests arrived empty handed and left with a sofa. Image magazine hosted a launch party for their wonderful looking Interiors supplement in Habitat and the shop obliged by offering partygoers a hefty discount on large purchases hence the sofa buying fever with the shop selling out of every colour in one particular style.

Jane McDonnell, the magazine's ever stylish editor, arrived dressed head to toe in this season's brown and was the perfect party host. Her magazine has consistently been the classiest and best Irish women's mag - much like the Interiors supplement which is not only free but lets the rest of us have a good old look into some posh Irish houses.

Owners of most of the houses featured were at the party, including medical man Eoin O'Brien and his wife Tona, barrister Bill Shipsey (who arrived straight from his flying lessons), and architect Michael Cullinan with his wife, Shannon. Good manners stopped them from publicly comparing the number of pages devoted to each house, but it didn't stop the rest doing some quick mental arithmatic.

Head turner of the evening was furniture maker Simon O'Driscoll who stood out like a beacon of hope for those single girls fast despairing at the number of obviously attached men wandering around carrying babies. Patrick Walshe was one such man. He owns the Roundwood Store with his wife Ros and they brought their extraordinarily cute five week old son Marcus to the party.

Claire O'Reilly, manager at the Clarence Hotel, naturally looked at home in the stylish surroundings and reported that business at the Tea Rooms is now building.