Songs and recitations marked the launch of Big Fat Love,the first novel from Peter Sheridan. Introduced by his editor, Alison Walsh of Tivoli Books, and actor Pauline McLynn, the writer himself came on stage to provide the entertainment.
He treated his friends and family to renditions of songs such as Take Her up to Monto, as well as a number of excerpts from his newly published book.
Among those who packed into Liberty Hall Theatre to hear Sheridan speak were writer and scriptwriter Shane Connaughton and his wife, Ann; actor and singer Dave Duffy; Ali Curran, director of the Peacock Theatre; author of The Very Man, Chris Binchy; Catherine Punch, manager of the Screen Directors' Guild of Ireland, and artist Evanna O'Boyle, whose work will be on view at the Bridge Gallery on Ormond Quay from early December.
"I'm going to make a film of this and my brother, Jim, is definitely talking about doing a film of 44: A Dublin Memoir," said Sheridan, about plans for his previous book.
He was looking forward to attending his brother's gala première of In America at the Savoy the following night.
The Sheridan family were out in force, including the brothers' only sister, Ita Rafferty, a teacher in Scoil Mhuire on Wellington Road, Cork.
Peter Sheridan's wife, Sheila, was with their son, Rossa, who flew in from San Francisco to attend the launch.
Sheridan's first two books were memoirs, unlike his third book, which is fiction.
"There are things in this that are totally true, like the Aqua-Nots' dispute in the early 1950s, which was about working in the rain, and the pulling down of the Sheriff Street flats in 1997. They are real events that act as a backdrop. I want a novel to feel like this is true, that it's not made up".
Big Fat Love by Peter Sheridan is published by Tivoli