Ballybeg hit Broadway big-time. Brian Friel's fictional Donegal village, where five women made their own poignant arrangements with destiny, had its screen debut at New York's Sony Lincoln Square Cinema on Monday night.
Through a corralled bank of flashing cameras, Meryl Streep slipped almost apologetically into the thronged cinema lobby. In a simple long grey dress and not appearing to wear any make-up, her shy smile was the same as ever. A passer-by observed: "She makes me want to throw up. Nobody has a right to look that good at her age." She is 48.
Also decanted from long black limousines to run the media gauntlet into what the organisers described as a "charity premear" in aid of cancer research were actors Minnie Driver, Aidan Quinn, Wes Craven and, from the original Abbey Theatre production of Lughnasa in 1990, Belfast's Brid Brennan, re-creating the role of the doomed Agnes.
Meryl may have top billing on the film posters, but Donegal's ambassador to the world, Dr Jim McDaid, who doubles as Minister for Tourism, has plans for another star. Distinctive Donegal. "The Friel country" is going to be as big a tourism brand as Killarney if he has anything to do with it, he told a media briefing earlier in the day.
At a party later, film producer Noel Pearson circulated among the crowd like a man without a care in the world. If he is apprehensive about Friday's review of his film, he wasn't showing it. The Irish Ambassador, Mr Sean O hUiginn, chatted to the former US ambassador, Ms Jean Kennedy Smith, who had turned up to support yet another Irish cause. And the bar staff tried to master the art of pulling pints of Guinness with more goodwill than success. Dr McDaid spoke of Ireland's millennium celebrations which will begin next year.
A troupe of young musicians and dancers from Glenties, close to Brian Friel's fictional Ballybeg, silenced the chattering party throng with a spirited display which got a hugely enthusiastic response. And the dancers' mothers clustered at the side of the stage almost burst with pride.
Earlier in the day, after launching a supplement of Forbes business magazine focusing on Irish industrial development, Dr McDaid told journalists about the importance of marketing north-west tourism on a cross-Border basis, now under intensive discussion following the Belfast Agreement. "Derry is the fourth-largest city on the island," he said. He hopes Ryanair will soon operate services to Derry.
He also cited the Canadian market as one where historic links with the unionist community could be useful in promoting Ireland as a tourist venue.