Ed Burns speaks at Dublin Film Festival

The highly talented writer, director, actor and musician was in town for the Irish premiere of his latest movie The Groomsmen, a film set among an Irish American community in suburban New York.

Burns, who has Irish roots, also directed The Brothers McMullan, which won Best Picture at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995.

"This is a low budget movie. It cost three million dollars to make, and in the end we only got that money because we were able to cast Brittany Murphy in the film," he told a packed house in a Q&A session after The Groomsmen was shown. "It's tough doing movies this way. But it does allow me, as a writer and director, to control the script from start to finish, which I like to do."

The premier was attended by Burns' wife, the supermodel Christy Turlington, as well as Bono and Simon Carmody, among other Irish musos. "No one else is telling the story of what happened to ordinary Irish people that went to America," Bono reflected afterwards. "Obviously there's films like Miller's Crossing and Gangs of New York about one aspect of the Irish American experience. But what happened to the people who went there and settled in the suburbs? That's a really important story for us to understand. And Ed is the only one exploring it, first with The Brothers McMullan and now this."

Following the movie screening, there was a performance by Burns' band, The Blue Jackets, with whom the director plays rhythm guitar. "The four of us have got other jobs, so it's all about getting out on a Friday night," he joked. But, in fact, The Green Jackets are a serious proposition. They have, according to their website been "practicing and recording like crazy" – and their first six-track EP is scheduled for release in Ireland shortly.

"We have an album more or less finished," Burns told Hot Press. "There's some overdubs to be done, but that's about it. We're doing the EP independently, and if that goes well, and we get a bit of momentum going, we'll talk to one of the better indie labels about the album."
The Blue Jackets songs feature in the movie, which centres around five band members – local friends who are brought back together on the occasion of the marriage of Paulie, played by Burns, to Sue (Brittany Murphy) – and the way in which they deal with a number of intersecting personal crises.

Brian Ormonde, Brendan Rodgers, Tatiana Ouliankina, Marisa Mackle, Karen Koster, Triona McCarthy, FM104’s Tara Loughrey-Grant, 98FM’s Siobhan O’Connor, Simon Stokes, Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh, Anna Nolan, actors Eoin Macken, Emmet Scanlon and the man who's been dubbed the ‘new Colin Farrell’, Kevin J Ryan, home from LA for a break in between filming, were among those in attendance at what was a very successful event overall for Jameson.