OnTheTown: 'Fifty-one years old and showing our age," was the quip from the ever- effervescent Cork Film Festival chairman, Dr Charlie Hennessy, as he hobbled on stage at Cork Opera House on two crutches (following a recent hip operation) to launch this year's festival.
Succinct but eloquent, Hennessy promised us a week of fine fare before he'd see us all again this Sunday night for the closing offering, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. By then, he predicted confidently, he would be getting about on one crutch.
Earlier, around 200 invited guests had gathered in Luigi Malones for a reception with Irish actor Patrick Bergin, distinctive in a black cowboy hat which he'd purchased at Puck Fair. He revealed that it was his first visit to the Cork Film Festival.
"I'm off to Namibia next month to make a film with Wesley Snipes. It's a sort of gothic spaghetti western. I play the marshal," said Bergin, who is currently filming Mark Mahon's Strength and Honor in Cork, with Michael Madsen, Richard Chamberlain and Vinnie Jones.
Just returned from Dublin, where she was thrilled by Came so Far for Beauty, the tribute concert to Leonard Cohen, was former Progressive Democrat TD Máirín Quill, who was particularly looking forward to the the opening film, Gabriel Range's Death of a President.
"I've a great interest in American politics. My uncle, Mike Quill, was hugely involved in the labour movement in the US and an avowed Democrat. He knew the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, so I'm very keen to see this film," said Quill, who was with her sister, Ita Quill.
Also enjoying the reception was poet Tom McCarthy and his wife, Catherine Coakley, Green Party TD Dan Boyle and his wife, Bláithín Hurley, and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin and his wife, Mary O'Shea.
Other politicos in attendance included Fine Gael MEP and TD Simon Coveney and Labour Senator Brendan Ryan and his wife, Clare, who revealed that she was looking forward to catching some of the many documentaries included in the festival programme.BR
Lines that reel in the famous and the funds
'They were very jealous, especially when they heard we were getting letters back from some of the people we did," said Stephanie Veitch of her classmates, at the launch of Lifelines: New and Collected, the fourth instalment of the bestselling poetry anthology.
Not many secondary-school students can boast of having received personal letters from TV stars such as Graham Norton or literary giants such as Melvin Burgess and JM Coetzee, but Veitch can, along with her classmates, Donal O'Connor and Caroline Shaw. Lifelines began as a fundraising initiative at Dublin's Wesley College in 1985, when students wrote to novelists, artists, broadcasters and politicians asking them to send in a favourite poem, accompanied by a letter explaining their choice.
Veitch, O'Connor and Shaw were the three lucky Wesley students chosen to assist in the compilation of the fourth instalment of the series.
The atmosphere in the examination hall of the Royal College of Surgeons this week was reminiscent of a school prize-giving ceremony, and teachers and pupils, past and present, could be overheard catching up. A line of contributors, students and poets sat on the stage preparing to recite poems, like students waiting to read in assembly.
Watching over proceedings was Niall MacMonagle, an English teacher at Wesley who edited the anthology and was lauded by many of those in attendance for his dedication to the project. Christopher Woods, current principal at Wesley, was joined by a number of his predecessors, including Kenneth Blackmore and John Harris.
Among those who read poems from the anthology at the launch were poet and barrister John O'Donnell and poets Julie O'Callaghan and her husband, Dennis O'Driscoll. Marie Heaney, whose husband, Seamus Heaney, has been a popular choice among contributors over the years, also read a poem, as did Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, founder of Focus Ireland.
Broadcaster Gay Byrne and his wife, Kathleen Watkins, came along, as did Peter Fallon, founder of Gallery Press, who also contributed to the anthology.
The high point of the launch came with the announcement that the four Lifelines books have so far raised €100,0000 for Concern.
• Lifelines: New and Collected is published by TownHouse. RD
Friends give debut novelist a 'dig-out'
After a gruelling climb up numerous flights of stairs to the top floor of the Odessa Club, those attending this week's launch of Gerard Stembridge's first novel were glad that what greeted them at the end of all that exertion was an abundance of large leather couches and cosy-looking chairs.
The opulent setting (as well as recent political controversies) provided a fitting backdrop for the launch of the novel, According to Luke, which focuses on the 31-year-old protagonist's reaction to the revelation that his father is implicated in decades of political scandal.
The novel began life as a series in the Dubliner, and the magazine's publisher, Trevor White, was at the Odessa to celebrate its publication. "It's not an attempt to tell the story of the Celtic Tiger, that mythical creature we all live with," said White. "It's more timeless than that. It's a unique story, fast-paced and compulsive."
"I'm like a kid," enthused Stembridge, clutching a copy of the novel to his chest. "It's probably because I don't have to share it with anyone, like light designers and actors."
Among those in attendance from the theatre world were Fiach MacConghail, director of the Abbey Theatre, and actor Bríd Brennan. Dublin City Council arts officer Jack Gilligan, came along too, as did gossip columnist turned rat-pack crooner Jason O'Callaghan. A late arrival was the British journalist and author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (as well as a recent memoir), Toby Young.
Patricia Deevy, of Penguin Ireland, combined a sales pitch with some political reference as she concluded her speech.
"You're very welcome to give Gerry a 'dig-out'," she quipped, gesturing at the copies of the book on a nearby table.
• According to Luke, by Gerard Stembridge, is published by Penguin Ireland, €14.99. See review, W11
Diving into the limelight
'This feels like a school photo," joked artist Chloe Early as she posed for snaps with her family at the opening of her first solo exhibition in Dalkey's Tramyard Gallery this week.
It may sound like a slightly odd comment to make, but for the 26-year-old Early, who grew up in Cork and graduated from NCAD in 2003, those school memories are perhaps a lot fresher than for more established artists.
Titled Springboard, the exhibition consists of 12 oil paintings on aluminium, each one depicting a lone female diver against varying landscapes.
"I had been working with landscapes and urban landscapes," explained Early, who is currently based in London. "I wanted there to be something more, a bit of a surprise, and that's where I came up with the idea of the divers."
Early's parents, Marian and Richard, and brother Ronan, as well as boyfriend Conor Harrington and his parents, John and Mary, were all at the gallery to lend their support on the night.
There were plenty of friends from Cork too, including neighbours Pat and Kathy O'Dwyer and pal Karen Cafferkey, who brought along her colleague, Sinead Kavanagh, a fan of graduate shows.
"I love graduate shows, you get to see such experimental work," said Kavanagh. "But this work is so developed."
Many of Early's peers from NCAD were in attendance at the opening, including Sligo artist Clive Bright, winner of the 2005 Golden Fleece Award, who travelled from the north-west to attend the opening.
Other guests included the renowned Irish artist, Charlie Whisker, and the internationally known fashion designer, Peter O'Brien.
With half the paintings already marked with those coveted little red dots by the time the exhibition opened, there was a real sense that people were witnessing the entry on to the scene of a hugely talented young artist.
Springboard runs at the Tramyard Gallery, Dalkey, Co Dublin, until Tue, Oct 31. RD