"London at the time was the epicentre of European internet activity and so I had to go there, " she says.

Fast forward six years and Twohill is still in London, but now as director of European marketing for internet giant Google. She is one of a new generation of influential Irishborn marketers scaling the heights of London's cut-throat advertising, PR and internet scenes. While much has been made of how the Irish dominate the London property sector and 'own' Bond Street, it seems marketers hailing from these shores are cutting it in Soho's adland too.

Chances are that Lorraine Twohill will have come across her compatriot, Kevin Brown, a director of Google's ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

The name Rory Godson is on many lips too, as the Dublinborn former deputy editor of the Sunday Tribune develops a power base in the Square Mile as a financial PR guru.

Meanwhile, Britain's internet trade association, BIMA, is chaired by another Dubliner, Paul Walsh, whose day job involves running web accessibility and mobile testing company Segala.

And these are just the highprofile players. The Ireland Fund of Great Britain, the fundraising charity that doubles as a business and social network for Irish professionals in London, says it has "at least 200" Irish marketing directors and managers on its database of donors and event-goers.

They are drawn to a city that Godson describes as "one of the two great international cities in the world" and the opportunities it provides.

Many blue-chip companies have their headquarters in London, where marketing strategy is set and then executed by ad agencies based in Soho or Farringdon.

So why have these bright marketers eschewed the booming Irish economy while members of other professions - notably lawyers and accountants - have returned from London in droves?

The fact is that while it's not exactly a marketing backwater, Dublin's smaller scene cannot hope to compete with London's scale and creative opportunities. The marketing strategies of multinational companies tend to be generated at headquarter level, in offices based usually in the larger markets of the US, Britain and Europe. They attract the best marketing talent including, it seems, some of Ireland's finest.

Heavy-hitting marketers are not motivated by localising global marketing plans but rather by the extent of their influence over brand strategy and a large marketing budget at their disposal, says Séamus Farrelly, commercial director of headhunters HRM Recruitment Group.

"It's not that such jobs don't exist here in Ireland but there aren't as many opportunities, and when they do come up, they are heavily sought-after, " he says.

While technology makes business increasingly borderless, proximity to London's ad agencies and culture is vital for British-based marketers. Powerscourt Media, the financial PR company cofounded by Rory Godson, delivers media nous to both Irish and international brands and gets them coverage in the financial press. To achieve that, Godson feels he must nurture his book of City contacts face-to-face.

"Every company that's serious about international business has to tell their story in London, " he says. "To have the relationships with the key editors here, you have to be on the ground, and by osmosis, taking in the same influences as them such as listening to the BBC in the morning."

Powerscourt's work advising Aer Lingus on its IPO last year could not have been done effectively from Ireland, Godson says.

For those Irish marketers arriving in Heathrow from the mid-1990s onwards, it helped that the Irish 'brand' had never been so highly valued.

"The Celtic Tiger didn't just change the nation, it changed the perception of Irish people and their abilities, " says Adrian Brady, who in 1996 founded Eulogy, which claims to be the biggest Irishowned PR agency in the UK working for such clients as Virgin Mobile and Royal Mail.

Hugh Burkitt, chief executive of The Marketing Society, attributes the success of Irish marketers in the UK to several characteristics.

"The Irish have some advantages on the British scene, " he says. "There's no question that the Irish verbal ability is very great. The Irish accent is classless, whereas English voices can convey status. And as we increasingly work in team situations requiring consensus, the natural conviviality of the Irish comes into play."

Beyond this, London's most influential Irish marketers share certain traits, not least an impressive CV and early experience of big campaigns or brands. Many are aged between 35 and 40 and have passed personal thresholds such as starting a family that make returning to Ireland more difficult.

One feature that LondonIrish marketers lack is a formal professional network, similar to that for Irish solicitors and accountants in Britain. The absence of such a forum is a missed opportunity for doing business, says Eulogy's Adrian Brady. His PR agency is exploiting its advantage to "understand both British and Irish cultures" by helping overseas brands launch in Ireland and vice-versa. The company is currently working on Brazilian drinks brand Sagatiba's Irish debut.

There is, of course, an informal network for Irish marketers and other professionals through events run by The Ireland Fund of Great Britain. What aspiring marketer would not want to rub shoulders with Peter Sutherland, chairman of the fund and former chairman of BP and Goldman Sachs International, at the fund's annual London City Luncheon powerfest?

Aileen Ross, director of the fund, denies that its purpose is a business network, stressing that the primary aim is to raise money for projects to help the Irish community in Great Britain. To do so, however, the fund must encourage affluent Irish professionals to attend its parties and golf days.

"It's become obvious that they do us to network, to meet like-minded people to do business with and socialise, " she says.

Nearly 20 years ago, the writer Maeve Binchy observed London-based Irish professionals at play at another London Irish ball and coined the acronym Nipples ('new Irish professional paddies living in England'). Now it seems we may have to invent a new one. That's because today's Simpils ('successful Irish marketing people in London') are determined to influence the destiny of the world's biggest brands and must do so beyond these shores.