Stones may be thrown quite a lot but very rarely are they the subject of an auction. Despite this, a gang gathered at Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud on Tuesday for the second Cill Rialaig Art lunch hosted by Noelle Campbell Sharp.
The great and the good were invited to etch something or other in stone with results varying from Sinead O'Connor's painted name to Paloma Picasso's delicate gold script. Before the auction, which included works by established artists such as Car- mel Mooney and photographer Perry Ogden, guests enjoyed fine fare, which may have encouraged the odd impulsebuy.
Actor Patrick Bergin, who also decorated a stone, took time out from his busy filming schedule on the new film about Veronica Guerin to attend the lunch. His artistic offering, which was hurriedly completed on location the night before, was still wet with paint.
Nobody seemed too be bothered, though, as it eventually ended up being auctioned for £3,320 - the most expensive "celebrity stone" of the day.
Among the lunching ladies and gents were solicitor Clodagh Kean, pasta queen Mai Frisbee, Caroline Downey, retailer Jackie Lavin, and Keith MacCarthy Morrogh, joint managing director of Findlater Wines.
Carlton Verney, the American interior designer who has worked on no less than the White House in Washington and Trump Tower in New York, was in the company of George Stacpoole of Adare, Co Limerick. His wife, Michelina Stacpoole, has recently been commissioned to design dresses for Hillary Clinton.
Guests lingered well into the afternoon, many continuing on to Jen Kelly's fashion show later at the National Gallery.