No rushing a Guinness

THE SOCIAL NETWORK:Desmond Guinness launched Harry Durdin Robertson's exhibition at the Oriel Gallery in Dublin on Thursday. Guinness looked worried as he told me he forgot his spectacles, his speech and a pen. The founder of the Irish Georgian Society managed to ad lib. "First of all, what a wonderful gathering of youth and beauty, all of which are gazing at me." The audience was in the palm of his hand. "Ole blue eyes is looking younger," joked Michael Maughan of Shrewsbury Road.

“The pictures are amazing,” Guinness continued. “I want to know so much more about every single one, but you’d probably die of boredom.” Durdin Robertson replied, “The landscapes are all local, with dark skies . . .”

“Ah yes,” said Guinness. “In Italy, of course, the sun would be shining.”

The artist’s mother, Moira, caught up with Maureen Beary Ryan of the Friends of the National Gallery. The group visited the Durdin Robertson family home, Huntington Castle in Carlow, a few years ago.

Durdin Robertson remembered his late father, David, who died three years ago. David introduced the gallerist Mark Nulty to his son’s paintings. Nulty’s wife, Mandy, couldn’t attend; she was at home at St Ann’s on Ailesbury Road looking after their baby, Charlie.

Who we spottedDesmond Guinness's wife, Penny, and his daughter, Marina; Princess Frances Colonna, a friend of the Durdin Robertsons; Christine Davies from Wicklow; Georgina Fitzgerald from Bunclody, Co Wexford; Jane Mahony, who was waiting for her husband, Dr Peter Boylan, to arrive from performing a Caesarean section; Matthew Durdin Robertson, who was home from the Democratic Republic of Congo for his brother's exhibition.