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GAZETTE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995
N E W S
Irish Solicitors Bar Association
London Ball
ErnestMargetson (Past President, The Law Society) and Cliona O'Tuama at the Irish
Solicitors Bar Association London Ball.
by Cliona O'Tuama, President of the
Irish Solicitors Bar Association
The Irish Solicitors Bar Association's
fifth annual Charity Ball was held on
Saturday 22 October at the Natural
History Museum in South Kensington,
London. In previous years, we had
always held the Ball in May or early
June but decided this year to change the
timing of the Ball to October.
The proceeds from the Ball were donated
to the Westminster Branch of the NSPCC
to assist in the running of the refuge for
runaway children which they established
in central London almost a year ago in
conjunction with Centrepoint. The
refuge, provides a safe place for runa-
ways under sixteen years old and informs
their parents or carers of their safety, but
not of their whereabouts. It is an
extremely worthwhile cause. The profits
of the ball went a small way to making
life better for innocent children who have
been the victims of neglect or abuse.
A champagne reception before the
dinner was kindly sponsored by AIB.
A superb dinner was followed by one of
the highlights of the evening, a charity
auction. I had been tipped off that
Paul
Kelly,
Solicitor, who had come all the
way from Leixlip to support the Ball,
would be a superb auctioneer and I had
been lucky enough to persuade him to
be our celebrity auctioneer. Paul
performed superbly in his new-found
role and persuaded everyone to dig
deeply into their pockets and his efforts
raised a total of £1,250 in the auction.
The star item in the auction was a dinner
for six to be cooked for the successful
bidder and delivered to his/ her home by
a leading catering company. The dinner
was much sought after and the bidding
was keen and swift and it was
eventually bought by Belfast-born
barrister
Conor Quigley,
who has a
thriving European law practice in
London and who also lectures in EU law
at Oxford. Conor was so keen to
increase the profits for the NSPCC that,
when all other bidders had fallen silent,
he asked fellow-barrister
Mark Brealey
to bid against him and Conor eventually
paid £550 for the dinner.
Once again I was overwhelmed by the
generosity of several major Irish law
firms and commercial institutions, who
supported the Ball by hosting corporate
tables, taking advertisements in our
souvenir programme, making financial
donations or donating items for the raffle.
As before, leading Irish firm McCann
FitzGerald, who was the first Irish firm
to have opened an office in London, was
one of our major sponsors. McCann
FitzGerald partner
Roddy Bourke
(ably
assisted by his wife
Ann Daly
) hosted a
corporate table on behalf of the firm and
his colleague
Niall Powderley
had also
invited several London lawyers as
guests of the firm. I was pleased when
Niall won first price in the raffle, two
return tickets to New York, which had
been kindly donated by Aer Lingus. It
was fitting that McCann FitzGerald's
generosity was rewarded.
I was delighted that
Ernest Margetson,
a
former President of the Irish Law
Society and senior partner of another
major Irish firm, Matheson Ormsby
Prentice, supported the Ball once again.
Ernest hosted a corporate table on
behalf of MOP with
Stanley Watson
the
firm's resident London partner.
Unfortunately,
William Fry,
another
leading Irish firm with an office in
London, were unable to take a table at
this year's Ball, as their resident London
partner
A islinn O'Farrell
was out of the
country.
William Fry
have always been
generous supporters of the Association
and gave a very generous donation in
support of the Ball and the NSPCC to
compensate for the fact that they were
not able to take a table this year.
Although we were sorry that they could
not be with us this year,
William Fry
were certainly with us in spirit, thanks
to their generous donation!
Another major Irish firm who took a
corporate table was
Eugene F Collins,
whose table was hosted by
Eugene
Murphy
and
Simon McCormick.
(I hope
that Simon wasn't too inundated by
suitors after I referred to him as Dublin's
most eligible bachelor! I am still receiv-
ing requests for introductions from un-
attached women lawyers and bankers!)
Other major corporate contributors
included Aer Lingus, Anglo Irish
Bankcorp, Bank of Ireland, Bord Failte,
Irish Permanent and Virgin Atlantic
CityJet. Thanks are due to all of them
and to the many major London law
firms and members of the English Bar
who supported the Ball again.
(Continued on page 28
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