Tripping the light fantastic, they came in to celebrate and applaud. It was the annual Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards dinner, held on Sunday night. Lynne Parker, who was nominated in the best director category for her direction of The Sanctuary Lamp by Tom Murphy at the Abbey, chatted to Rough Magic colleague Loughlin Deegan as well as Paula Shields, administrator of Theatre Shop, which promotes Irish theatre abroad.
The upcoming Rough Magic production is Copenhagen by Michael Frayn. This will be an Irish première, opening at the Project in April. "It's about nuclear physicists who worked on the German bomb programme," according to Parker, Rough Magic's artistic director.
Catherine Walsh, in mint green, and her sister, Eileen Walsh, in black, with a bottle of champagne in her hand, were surrounded by friends and admirers. Catherine was voted best actress for her part in Eden by Eugene O'Brien. It is expected that the play will now go to London's West End. Their friend, Kathy Downes, who will be seen in Fergus's Wedding starting on Network 2 next Monday, smiled as they tried to answer questions from the press.
Sisters Sinéad and Simone Kirby from Ennis, Co Clare, who are both involved in theatre, were delighted to have joined up to be at the awards. Sinéad is production manager with Sligo's Blue Raincoat Theatre and Simone is an actress with Calipo Theatre Company in Drogheda.
Love was in the air at the Burlington when writer Deirdre Purcell and Kevin Healy, who retired as RTÉ public affairs director last year, arrived. They were pleased to reveal that they had got married last September after many years together. The novelist's upcoming book, Marble Gardens, published by New Island, is due out in April.
Barney Whelan, of the ESB, was pleased as punch after being voted promotions manager of the year at the National Sales and Marketing Awards last week. He and Mags Gowen took their places at the gala dinner. Among the many guests were actor Lorcan Cranitch and his partner, Susan Jackson, an RTÉ news broadcaster. Cranitch is currently doing a series about MI5 for the BBC, called Spooks, in which he plays an IRA man.