On The Town:It was the best of nights and the worst of nights as fans, film-goers, cameramen, photographers, reporters and some gardaí waited to greet U2 at Dublin's Cineworld this week. The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival celebrated a coup with the European premiere of the first 3D digital film about the band, called U2 3D.
And sure enough, the four lads, Bono, Adam, Larry and The Edge, duly arrived for the screening of the movie, which was shot on nine 3D camera systems during the South American leg of the band's Vertigotour.
Catherine Owens, the film's co-director with Mark Pellington, was also in attendance.
"I'm very proud because I've known her since she was 17," said Bono. Later, spreading largesse around like the star he is, he gave his iconic shades and a kiss on the cheek to delighted TV3 reporter Lisa Cannon, of the station's Xposéprogramme.
The film "captures the band", said Adam Clayton, explaining that U2 and Owens go way back. "Catherine has been putting our live shows together for about 15 years."
"We felt it was very important to come here and to launch in Ireland," said Owens. "It's been a long journey to get this film back to Ireland. It is very special," she said.
"You can feel it, the heat - that kind of excitement, the great respect from the crowd for the music, you can feel it off the screen," said Gaby Smyth, U2's financial director, as he recalled his experience of the concerts in Buenos Aires and Santiago. "The gigs were visceral and exciting and very passionate in a classic South American way," he said.
It was the worst of nights, however, because it all had to end. Afterwards, the partygoers went home, tired but happy, and the lights were turned out.
The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival closes tomorrow with the screening of Edenat the Savoy
Framed fruits of the tree of life
Trees in all their beauty, as photographed with a Leica film camera by film-maker Moira Sweeney, went on view at Airfield House in Dublin earlier this week.
Sweeney, who was series director and producer of the first Cártaí Poistseries on TG4 and is the current series producer of Imeall Gael, which is now showing on BBC Northern Ireland, said that trees "are physically beautiful" and added that "I find them very healing and nurturing to be honest."
The exhibition, Crann Beatha, which means "tree life", will run at Airfield House until the end of this month, before continuing on to Enfo in Dublin 2 in March. It includes images of trees in the southwest of France as well as trees here in Ireland, in areas such as Bushy Park and Glencullen in the south of Dublin.
There's a sharp contrast between photographs from the two countries, said Sweeney, who began work on this collection in the winter of 2003. Taking the photographs involved becoming "something of a hunter, trekking the Pyrenees to create subtle compositions from the autumnal tones of hillside forests or the delicate branches of lakeside trees in winter fog", she said.
Among those who attended the opening was art photographer Dan O'Connell and the poet and playwright Liam Ó Muirthille, who was delighted with the coincidence that his new upcoming play, which he wrote while working with members of the community in the Gaeltacht area of Baile Mhúirne, is all about trees and entitled An Crann. The exhibition was opened by Niall Mac Coitir, author of Irish Trees, Myths, Legends and Folklore.
Crann Beathaby Moira Sweeney continues at Airfield House, Dundrum, Kilmacud Road Upper, Dublin 14, until Thurs, Feb 28, and continuing at Enfo, 17 St Andrew St, Dublin 2 from Wed, March 5
Focus on a year in photographs
'A photograph shouldn't need a lot of explaining," said Ray McManus, president of the Press Photographers Association of Ireland (PPAI), when he spoke at the opening of an exhibition of the winning images in the AIB Photojournalism Awards at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin this week. An image "should say it all", he said.
It was the look on a rugby player's face as he scored a try which caught the eye of Dermot O'Shea, former picture editor of this paper.
"It's very unusual, very different," said O'Shea of the photograph by James Horan of Matt Giteau scoring a try for Australia against Wales. This won first prize in the sports action section. "A rugby player scoring a try wouldn't have time to smile, but he does," said O'Shea.
Richard Whelan, a design lecturer at DIT and a photographic documentor of Dublin, said he loved the photograph by Eamon Ward, called The Onlookers, of people watching the action at a People in Need telethon fundraising event in Co Clare. "I particularly like this documentation of our culture, our way of life, the blue coat, the shoes, the scarf," he said.
Niall Carson, overall winner of the AIB PPAI Photojournalist of the Year award, said the prize was very important because, as well as the trophy and a cheque for more than €11,000, it meant many of the photographers in the competition "are those photographers who would have inspired me", he said.
"It's nice to know you are competing with the big boys," he said. A total of 121 photographers entered, submitting 1,650 images. Other photographers who attended the opening included Brenda Fitzsimons, Dara Mac Donaill, Dave Meehan, David Sleator, Billy Higgins, Maura Hickey, Justin Mac Innes and John McElroy.
The AIB Photojournalism Exhibition 2007 continues at the Gallery of Photography, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 until Sun March 2. It will then travel to AIB branches around the country