Meanwhile there was a grand gathering of artists at the Glen Dimplex awards in the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night. In among the glitter and the backless dresses was a woman apart - Camille Souter. By her black crochet beret did we know her. To complete the boho attire, she wore blue-laced shoes. She was the heroine of the night.
Film director Neil Jordan told us of Souter's "rigorous genius over a long period" and the assembled guests stood to applaud her sustained contribution to the visual arts in Ireland, for which she was honoured.
Also celebrated was Dubliner Paul Rowley along with David Phillips, a Southern gentlemen from Memphis, Tennessee, who were the joint winners of this year's award and £15,000 prize money. They're currently working on a feature-length cowboy film set in the Mexican desert, called As Lathair. They expect to have it finished by September. The pair met three years ago in San Francisco and have worked as a team ever since "in an equal partnership".
Clare Langan, one of the short-listed artists, is just back from Namibia where she is working on her next film which is being shot in a deserted diamond mining town. Maude Cotter, another shortlisted nominee, is here from Cork with her husband, Peter Foynes. Her work, she explains, involves "examining the presence of the body within the structures we build around it".
One of the judges, Dr Margaret Downes, says it was "one of the toughest years ever" to pick a winner. "We closeted ourselves away in a room for four-and-a-half hours. You debate and discuss the four finalists. Then you come down to a decision by a process of osmosis."
Declan McGonagle, Derryman and director of IMMA, tells the diners in the Great Hall to "be quiet!" and the speeches get underway. Lochlann Quinn, deputy chairman of Glen Dimplex, who is here with his wife, Brenda Quinn, reminds us that this is the seventh year of the awards. The exhibition of shortlisted artists continues until Sunday, June 18th.