Singing for supper at the Veronica Dunne gala evening

THE SOCIAL NETWORK:Maestro Richard Bonynge was enjoying the gala dinner for the 7th Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, in Blackhall Place in Dublin, on Wednesday evening. Bonynge, who is the widower of the late Dame Joan Sutherland, was one of the adjudicators for this year's competition, which was won by Nadine Sierra on Thursday at the National Concert Hall.

Bonynge, an acclaimed international conductor, was wearing a small decoration in his lapel that he described as “like being a ‘Sir’ in Australia, only we don’t have titles”.

Dr Veronica Dunne (known affectionately as Ronnie), who was meeting and greeting the invited guests, was especially thrilled that Bonynge was one of the judges. “He’s a very good friend of mine. His wife, Joan, and I went into Covent Garden together.” Dunne introduced Margaret Quigley as “my best customer, as she gives €10,000 every year of the competition”. Quigley is a former history teacher at Holy Child School in Killiney.

It’s hard for a man to stand out at a black-tie event, but the Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy managed to. How? He tied his own bow tie after watching a YouTube tutorial.

The TD for Dublin South East, who attended St Michael’s College on Ailesbury Road, is a brother of Killian Scott, who plays Tommy in the hit RTÉ crime drama Love/Hate. Scott changed his surname so as not to be confused with the Cork-born actor Cillian Murphy.

Who we spotted:The president of Griffith College, Dublin, Diarmuid Hegarty; Fr Eugene Curran, a vice-president of All Hallows College; the general manager of the Merrion Hotel, Peter McCann, and his wife, Dorothy; Judith Woodworth, a former director of the National Concert Hall; the soprano Suzanne Murphy, who was also one of the competition judges; RTÉ's Áine Lawlor and David Davin-Power, and Morning Ireland producer Hilary McGouran.