Packed into the upstairs wings of the UGC cineplex were many stars. It was a dazzling night. "He's a beautiful cat," said B. P. Fallon. "And he's so handsome." All eyes turned towards Olaf Tyaransen, the young man at the centre of this adulation and author of Sex Lines, which has just been published by HotPress Books. Niall Stokes, Hot Press editor, was on hand to oversee the launch and a reading from "the new meisterwork". Then it was in to view the Irish première of Birthday Girl, starring Nicole
The Sex Lines story, like Birthday Girl, centres on the mail-order bride business in eastern Europe. It touches on love, marriage and lust, says the dustcover.
"I had a lot of fun writing it," says Tyaransen, who visited the Ukraine for his research. Stokes points to the writer's parents, who may be shocked, he suggests.
The couple, Olaf (senior) and Margaret Tyaransen, were there from Galway with their youngest child, Naomi Tyaransen (10). "Olaf dramatises things a bit," said his mother. "It's not shocking. What's in the book is not the person we know."
For lovers of "very loud rock 'n' roll, and thrash and glam", Fallon, with former Creation Records supremo Alan McGee, has organised a series of nights in Temple Bar's Eamonn Dorans, including this Monday from 11 p.m. For those who like their music loud "and guys wailing" check out DeathDiscoDublin, he says.
Mikey Graham, formerly of Boyzone, was there too. He's currently involved in studio work, producing, doing sound engineering and "getting to be creative again". Then the lights went low and the film started to roll.