What with all the Mercedes, BMWs and monstrously endowed four-wheel-drive trucks bustling imperiously up the gravel highway which fronts the American Ambassador's Phoenix Park residence for Tuesday night's gala fundraising dinner in aid of the Fulbright US Scholarship Programme, our host for the evening, Pat Kenny, could perhaps be forgiven if he felt a bit inadequate as he trundled along in a smart, but scarcely eye-grabbing, six-seater people carrier. Come on Pat - a bit Alan Partridge, don't you think?
Never mind. Once proceedings got underway in a lavish marquee pitched alongside the gleaming white country demesne, the Late Late Show host-elect distinguished himself before the audience of 400 with typical smoothness, breezily dispensing niceties to an impressive field of political and corporate bigwigs headed by current US Ambassador Michael Sullivan and wife Jane Sullivan. Mr Sullivan's predecessor, Jean Kennedy-Smith, was also there, still looking rather at home in the Park. The former President, Dr Patrick-Hillary, was also present for the event chaired by Loretta Brennan Gluc-ksman who, along with her indefatigable activity for the American Ireland Fund also chairs the Fulbright Commission. Dublin restaurateur Brian Kennedy of The Coffee Club on Haddington Road seemed more taken than most with the dizzying variety of finger foods served up.
US business figures in town included Ted Knetzger of Greenwich Capital Markets, Tom Moran of Mutual America; both of whom had earlier enthusiastically chopped up the fairways during the 1999 Fulbright Ambassador's Golf Cup Tournament at the K Club alongside teams from Eircell, Hewlett Packard Ireland (led by MD Dave Young), and Kodak. Leading the Irish corporate charge were Smurfit CEO Paddy Wright and Aer Lingus chairman Bernie Cahill.
The Fulbright dinner is one of the highlights in the Irish American social calendar - last year's gala feast raised more than £80,000 and funded 10 scholarships for Irish students to top US colleges. According to organiser Sinead Buckley of Corporate Fairways, the 1999 event was every bit as successful.