OPENING night belonged to Last of the High Kings, which was marking the first of a series of notable Irish premieres, of which, Sue Clayton's The Disappearance of Finbar, Geraldine Creed's The Sun, The Moon and The Stars and Terry George's controversial Some Mother's Son, hot foot from Cannes, were most eagerly awaited.
The crowds flocked to the Town Hall Theatre for the opening movie, a comic coming of age story set in Dublin of, 1977, to the music of Thin Lizzy. Director David Keating and producer Tim Palmer introduced it to a packed and appreciative audience, while the writer Ferdia Mac Anna, on whose novel it is based, and cast members Lorraine Pilkington and Ciaran Fitzgerald joined them on stage.
Gabriel Byrne, who stars in it and worked on the script, couldn't make it to Galway for the showing. Though he no longer has a small house deep in rural, south Galway, he slips into the city more than occasionally. One predicted to arrive in similar fashion tomorrow was Richard Harris who plays in Trojan Eddie, the Gillies MacKinnon film which premieres at the Fleadh.
The great cross fertilisation of the Galway arts world was manifest in the presence of Galway Arts Festival's new artistic director, Ted Turton, the previous incumbent in that post, writer Trish Forde, who helped script Macnas's new production and former Druid theatre director, Maeliosa Stafford, home from Australia.
The distinguished British director Antonia Bird whose work is being honour at the Fleadh brought a welcome international dimension which was added to by Ibolya Fekete, the Hungarian director of the exuberant Bolshe Vita, an award winning, post revolution movie based in a rock pub in Budapest.
The Northern connection was strong, in advance of the premiere of Eliminator. The film's producer, Enda Hughes, attended the opening flanked by, members of the cast, complete with bazooka like weapon and chain saw. Their movie, reputed to be the first totally independent film to be made in the North, is described as "Ireland's first high octane, non-stop action, low budget spoof thriller".
After the Last of the High Kings, the last of the revellers returned to the Boat Club where "Cult Classics on the Corrib was due to open a series of open air screenings beside the river, featuring movies from the remarkable private collect ion of Tom Casey.