There were gasps at the Media Ball in the RDS last Saturday when the bidding for the signed copy of the Belfast Agreement topped £20,000 and was knocked down by the night's auctioneer, Joe Duffy, to Philip Lynch, MD of IAWS, the agribusiness group, the main sponsors of the event. It was signed by all involved, from Bertie Ahern, Mo Mowlam, Tony Blair, David Trimble and George Mitchell to Gerry Adams and David Ervine. Both the Sunday Business Post, which was critical of the agreement, and Independent Newspapers were prominent bidders.
Also auctioned was a ceremonial African collar donated by former President Mary Robin- son, and two tickets, as well as a signed shirt for Celtic, given by financier Dermot Desmond. A game of golf with the man himself had been suggested by the organisers, but instead Ben Dunne's solicitor Noel Smyth donated £1,000 worth of Dunloe shares.
With an attendance of 480, the ball was a sell-out, and more than £50,000 will go to Goal's Sudan famine appeal. Indeed the star-studded attendance would have been greater if the ball had not clashed with one of the biggest and most glittering entertainments of the year, the July 4th party thrown by departing US ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, in the Phoenix Park. Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney, as well as numerous other politicians and 2,000 leading lights of Irish society were at the Park. Ruairi Quinn was at the RDS. FG deputy leader Nora Owen managed to take in both.