If you were wondering where On The Town went last week the answer is simple - everywhere. If you're wondering where On the Town wishes it was this week, the answer is New York. What with the launch of the Hospice Foundation's Whoseday Book at the 21 Club on Wednesday night, the Ireland Fund Ball for 1200 of New York's finest at the Waldorf Astoria on Thursday night and the Trinity Ball in the Yale Club on Friday night, it was a great week for the Irish. A week when business and the arts came together with a bang - John Fitzpatrick of the hotel of that name raised the ante immediately by offering to lease the entire hotel for three days over the coming New Year festivities to anyone who wants to pay $1 million. A genius at publicity, it must be said.
The week got off to a promising start on Tuesday night when playwright Frank McGuinness arrived at his hotel to discover a fax telling him that he had been nominated for a Tony award for Electra. It's his third nomination and he has to wait until early June for the results. He found himself in good, theatrical company with Sebastian Barry and Martin McDonagh also in town.
Frank McCourt acted as host at the Whoseday party, introducing several contributors to the book, including Colm Toibin, New York resident Colum McCann, photographer Perry Ogden, artist Simon Riley and those irrepressible turn of the century dandies, Messrs David McDermott and Peter McGough who, needless to say, arrived in New York by boat. Arboe's daughters Marie Heaney and Polly Devlin both read their powerful pieces from the Whoseday Book; Polly's referring to her daughter Daisy Garnett, now living in New York and working for Vogue magazine. Guests included designer Louise Kennedy, model Jasmine Guinness and Susan Towers, formerly with World of Hibernia magazine and now with Fortune, who took Marie Donnelly and other Hospice project managers for dinner at La Goulou, where they passed Ivana Trump going out.
Tickets started at $500 a plate for the Ireland Fund Ball and there were 1200 takers. It was hosted by Kip Condron, head of the Dreyfus Fund and vice chairman of the Mellon Bank, and the head of the American Ireland Fund, Loretta Brennan Glucksman. And Tom Mitchell, provost of TCD, was to host last night's Trinity Ball, attended by several hundred graduates living all over the US.