The Northern Secretary, Mo Mowlam, has donated a gold silk scarf for the Energy Action auction in Dublin's Berkeley Court on September 23rd. The charity provides a free home-insulation service for the elderly and hopes to raise between £10,000 and £15,000 on the night.
Dr Mowlam is in good company. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is giving a framed item of embroidery which incorporates the FF logo, the shamrock, the Dublin crest and other celtic themes. Quidnunc suspects it is not his own work. But Labour leader Ruairi Quinn is donating his own work - an A4 size untitled painting - and former minister for the arts, Michael D. Higgins is writing a poem. Nobel prize winner, Seamus Heaney, is donating an original handwritten poem, The Strand, and a doodle. Former taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald has sent a signed copy of his memoirs for auction, and US senator Joe Kennedy, is giving a signed sketch he drew, Peace to Ireland, which depicts two doves at a fountain. The British ambassador, Veronica Sutherland, has just finished a painting of a scene in her garden at Glencairn for the charity, Boyzone has sent a signed platinum presentation disc and Bill Whelan has sent music sheets.