While many people were celebrating the Chinese New Year mid-week, John Colclough and Alix Gardner were raising a toast for a very different anniversary - on Thursday evening they held a party at their Waterloo Road home to mark the feast of St Eusebius. This little-known early Irish saint was a hotelier, running a hospice in Switzerland until he came to rather a sticky end. As John pithily puts it: "Like many in the hospitality industry, he lived a life of solitude and was murdered by his angry Swiss staff." They should know - they are directors of the Country House Tours and the Friendly Homes of Ireland scheme, and the commemoration for the martyred St Eusebius doubled as a celebration of the new houses which have joined their list. One of the most interesting new hosts is certainly Merv Griffin, the American chatshow host and owner of the Beverley Hills Hotel, who last year bought John Huston's old house, St Clerans, in Galway. Although Merv himself couldn't make it (he has never actually made it to Ireland at all, reportedly), his project co-ordinator on the upmarket B & B, Elizabeth O'Mahony, stopped by before dashing on to her father's 93rd birthday. David Butt of the Hibernian Hotel, Robert Travers of Timoleague Castle in west Cork, Catherine Byrne of Tinakilly House in Wicklow, Peter McCann of Dublin's Merrion Hotel and his wife Dorothy Whelan all came along to the party too.
There was another cause for celebration as well. John had just heard from the folks at Castle Leslie, members of the "Friendly Houses" scheme, that Samantha Leslie had sent some rather surprising news from "down under". She married project manager Ultan Bannon in an impromptu ceremony while on a sales trip to Australia last week.