Sporting signs of boom around the corner
The style is more subdued as the economy begins to move, writes Niamh Horan
IT’S almost six years to the day that Brian Cowen stepped down as Taoiseach and now Ireland is on the cusp of another boom. Last Friday, the former Taoiseach appeared relaxed and in good spirits in the grand ballroom of the Shelbourne Hotel, receiving a warm welcome from friends at the American Ireland Funds rugby lunch as foundation president Kieran McLoughlin took to the stage.
“If you look at the headlines, the picture is rather encouraging,” McLoughlin told guests. “Here, unemployment has dropped below 7pc, and last year for the first year since the crash we experienced net immigration. It’s a huge tribute of how far we have come and how fast the country has recovered.”
It was music to the ears of an audience peppered with Ireland’s legal, investment and finance giants ready to kick back ahead of one of the biggest weekends on the Irish sporting calendar.
Waiters carried out one platter after the next. Castletownbere crab and smoked salmon roulade, roast fillet of 32-day aged Charleville beef and an assiette of raspberry moelleux, lemon meringue and berry mousse.
Bids flashed on the screen for the fund’s auction. And guests were finally in the mood to joke about money again. “I’m over at the gambler’s table,” said one suit nodding to the table hosting Ireland’s stockbrokers. If the mood of a re-energised Irish economy has changed, so, too, has the appearance.
Gone are the garish bright orange, gaudy pinks and flashy jewels of 2008. The sartorial style is more subdued. No one tries too hard. Vintage costume jewellery has taken the place of one-carat diamonds on ladies who lunch. The glitter and glitz on bags and heels has been scaled back to evening events.
If these power women had been on holiday they had kept their precious skin covered up. There was no sign of the infamous Marbella perma-glow. The only deep tans on show were sported by men in suits.
As the evening wore on, Michael Flatley held court in the Horseshoe Bar. Leaning against the marbled counter scattered with pints of Guinness and half-finished cocktails, one of Ireland’s most successful art dealers explained: “People aren’t going for big names any more but good examples of a nice artist they actually enjoy.”
In the lobby, groups chatted as the laughter echoed through the revolving doors and out on to the streets.
Some of the 7,500 visiting French strolled through the drama of the capital’s nightlife and soaked up the atmosphere.
The spring in Ireland’s step could also be felt at Peploe’s on St Stephen’s Green, which has grown its guest book to more than 2,000 regulars. Behind the restaurant’s twinkly tree lights, Eamon Dunphy was back holding court last Friday lunchtime and by night an overflow of diners had curled around the bar.
Back in the days when Anglo Irish Bank lorded over Ireland’s banking sector from its tower next door, seven to eight of the restaurant’s tables would fill each lunchtime with the company’s bankers and their clients. On one occasion, a director brought two US guests to lunch and after one too many bottles of bubbles the bill came to €3,000. The next day, the eatery received a sheepish phone call from the Anglo boss, asking if he could have 10 invoices for €300 a head.
Now champagne doesn’t need to flow to be seen. Despite the CSO including a bottle of champagne alongside a loaf of bread and quart of milk in their basket of goods last week, their staff say Prosecco is the drink that has seen a surge in popularity.
Over at the Merrion Hotel, Patrick Guilbaud’s was packed to the rafters. But it isn’t only the clash against France that has drawn out the great and the good. Customers have to ring weeks in advance to secure a weekend table since the restaurant’s relaunch.
Elsewhere people dined al fresco on South Anne Street to make the most of an unseasonably mild spring evening, while swarms of Deliveroo riders signalled another sign of growth — with the business seeing a 200pc increase in lunchtime orders.
Inside luxury high-end bar Zozimus, a staff member spoke of signature espresso martini cocktails becoming the drink de jour as a young couple chatted at the side of the bar waiting for their order to land.
Outside, more than 30 construction cranes now tower over Dublin’s city centre.
At cashpoints and splashed across billboards, banks feature advertisement campaigns saturated in sentimentality. Couples at various ages owning their own home. All laughing, all loved up — linking love and connection with signing up to their mortgage packages.
As Cowen’s portrait prepares to go on the wall of Leinster House, it’s like the good times never left.
‘Eamon Dunphy was back holding court’