Gorgeous former Miss World Rosanna Davison and hunky husband Wesley Quirke escaped Ireland's chilly temperatures by soaking up the sun in Mauritius. Rosanna revealed than Wes "bronzes in five minutes"Leo Varadkar and his partner Matthew Barrett during the Montreal Pride parade
The rich are different from us. Or, at least, Rosanna Davison and her husband Wesley Quirke are. Last weekend, when the rest of the nation were freezing their collective proverbials off, the one-time Miss World and her beau jetted to the Indian Ocean.
The rich are different from us. Or, at least, Rosanna Davison and her husband Wesley Quirke are. Last weekend, when the rest of the nation were freezing their collective proverbials off, the one-time Miss World and her beau jetted to the Indian Ocean.
"We got the worst of it," protested Rosanna - meaning the snow in Ireland. "We only arrived in Mauritius on Sunday. We were snowed in all last week," she said, adding that "it is currently 30 degrees Celsius here."
Doubtless such sunny weather will encourage her and her husband to obey The Tan Commandments. They are in Mauritius for a couple of weeks to attend the re-opening of the One&Only Le Saint Geran hotel after its big renovation last year.
Rosanna is also there to work on a new season of recipes with the Constance Hotel Group. On March 21, they fly to Dubai for a few nights, then jet out to Pakistan to attend a swish event commemorating Pakistan Day. Hilary Swank and Lindsay Lohan are also going.
Rosanna is quite cool and witty, and doesn't take herself remotely seriously. A testament to her self-deprecating sense of self was surely that she didn't hang up her mobile phone by the pool of the One&Only Le Saint Geran in Mauritius when your diarist asked her these slightly ridic questions...
Who looks better on the beach - you or Wes?
"Wes looks better on the beach. He bronzes in about five minutes," she answered, "whereas I prefer to fake it". I was terrified to ask Chris de Burgh's famous daughter what she was faking, precisely.
Who spends more time in the bathroom getting ready to go out - you or Wes? "Believe it or not," she said, "Wes spends more time in the bathroom and takes longer to get ready! I love to be make-up free with messy hair on holiday." So do I.
Daniel and Majella head North West for Easter
Where to go for Easter? You could simply copy the loved-up plan of Daniel O'Donnell and lovely wife Majella and go North West.
"We plan to spend Easter at home in Donegal with Siobhan, Gavin, Olivia and Archie," he told me.
On the subject of my own happy days, I pointed out to Daniel that my wife Aoife recently brought into the world our second child, a baby boy with an intriguing name: Daniel.
"Well named!" said Daniel O'Donnell. "Congratulations to you all. That's great news. Our grandson Archie Daniel Thomas Shield was born on January 17.
"They're about the same dates, I'd say," wee Daniel said of delightful Daniel Hugh Peter Egan, who was born on January 11. Elsewhere, Elaine Paige, Aidan Gillen and his mum, plus Niall Quinn and his wife Gillian are expected at Tommy Fleming's sold-out show at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre tonight. Tommy and his wife Tina are throwing a post-show bash at Lillie's nightclub afterwards. To celebrate the end of his equally sold-out UK tour next month, Tommy and Tina are jetting out to their second home in Portugal for a holiday. T'n'T are so loved up that they had afternoon tea a deux in the Westbury yesterday.
Dr Matt's leaving Chicago early to rejoin Leo in July
Leo Varadkar and his partner Matthew Barrett during the Montreal Pride parade
I am probably Leo Varadkar's biggest fan. After Dr Matthew Barrett. He has done a pretty good job fixing the country so far as Taoiseach, don't you think?
It can't always have been easy with his other half - the aforementioned Matt - on the other side of the Atlantic, doing his fellowship and saving lives as a doctor of some note in Chicago while Leo saved the soul of the Irish nation 3,650 miles away.
Leo is flying out to Amerikay this week for St Patrick's Day.
"I'm missing both Six Nations matches as a result which is a bummer. So [I] will make up for it at Easter and go to Munster and Leinster matches in Thomond or the Aviva," he said.
Someone who An T presumably - and significantly - has missed of late, will, however, be joining him in the Big Apple. I speak, of course, of Dr Barrett.
"He's meeting me in New York for the weekend," Leo told me. "Private capacity. [He's] paying all his own bills, etc."
I told Leo that I hope to meet Matt some time. "You will most likely. He's not doing the second year in Chicago so will be back in July. Less than four months."
Glad to hear it, Leo. A happy Taoiseach is a happy Ireland, I always say.
Brendan and Chara: modest geniuses of Cork
There is a chance the streets of Ireland will be as empty this Wednesday evening as they were during Storm Emma. The whole country will be inside watching Brendan O'Connor's Cutting Edge which, happily, returns to RTE 1 at 9.35pm.
Merrion Private (I know, I know, it sounds like a posh wing in a hospital!) at Heritage House on St Stephen's Green was far from empty last Tuesday night as Brendan launched artist, and fellow Corkonian, Chara Nagle's latest exhibition Haystacks, which runs until March 21. Brendan noted that: "Of course, you talk to Chara and she will tell you she is just a simple straightforward artist who just creates work that makes people smile.
"Modesty is of course another hallmark of Cork people," he smiled.
"We are largely modest geniuses."
Brendan also told a packed Merrion Private (attendees included Dr Peter Boylan and his wife Jane, RTE's David Murphy and his wife Martina Devlin) that "when I think of Chara Nagle, I think about sex. I think specifically about her Moments paintings, those Celtic Tiger Irish people sitting around half naked.
"I was looking back on it, and it struck me that some of it wouldn't be allowed now in this new era. Because it wasn't black and white. It was ambiguous. Was she celebrating her subjects or sending them up?
"And it summed up the ambiguity many of us felt about these times. And of course that's the Cork person in her. Us Cork people are all about the ambiguity. We are a people who can hold in our minds at one time both a massive superiority complex and a massive inferiority complex."
