The party to celebrate Colum McCann's new novel This Side Of Brightness in the Dublin Bookshop was possibly the most glamorous thing about the book so far. The research took Colum miles beneath Manhattan to talk to the "tunnel-dwellers", homeless folk who live in the dark network underneath the streets. It took a while before they would accept him, but Colum is still in touch with many of them.
"They ring me up and ask to borrow $20," he says, grinning. They're also fond of meeting Isabella, Colum's 11-month-old daughter, who took her first steps just before he came back to Dublin to launch the book: "There's no way I could have missed that." Colum divides his time between New York and Ireland - his parents, Sean and Sally McCann are in Dublin, but he and his wife, Alison are based in New York.
He has other exciting plans afoot on the other side of the pond. Producer Peter Newman and the team behind the cult movie Smoke, have Colum's first novel, Songdogs, in production. There is no director as yet, but Richard Harris is interested in the project and hopes to use his son Jared Harris, who wowed the critics in I Shot Andy Warhol, in the film.
Another Irish novelist whose work, Headbanger, is being translated into celluloid, Hugo Hamilton, also joined the party. Director Cathal Black, who has just finished shooting a film in Achill Island written by Brian Lynch, will shortly turn his attention to Hugo's book.
There was a group at the party connected by a past film venture. Photographer Brendan Bourke directed a film of Colum's short story Fishing the Sloe Black River some years ago, with costumes by Cather- ine Condell and fine acting by John Kavanagh. John has various projects in the pipeline this year and described 1997 as "superb". He worked on four film projects as well as two stage outings, but his wife Anne seemed to think Pat O'Connor's Dancing At Lughnasa was a high point - "I think he took quite a shine to Meryl Streep," she smiled. Being a gentleman, John wouldn't disclose any more except that she was a lovely person, and pointed out that he had worked with other great leading ladies during the year including Joanna Lumley and Brenda Fricker.