Back then it was tempting to proclaim that the Irish were coming.

Ardmore studio boss George O'Reilly threw a pool-side champagne reception to announce that the Irish government had agreed to exempt from tax all overseas earnings from movies made in Ireland. Sadly Ireland didn't get a film industry for another 20 years. We were too busying censoring movies to make them. But when we did grow up, Cannes helped bring recognition to emerging Irish directors . . . particularly through its Director's Fortnight. Thaddeus O'Sullivan made his breakthrough there with The December Bride in 1990, as Damien O'Donnell followed with East Is East in 1997.

This year it's been Lenny Abrahamson's turn with Garage, which won the International Confederation of Art House Cinema's special prize. Garage will be released in Ireland this autumn, as will Prosperity, a series of four TV dramas about marginalised people that Abrahamson is currently directing.

Michael Madsen showed up in the Cannes Market for a special screening of the Irish movie Strength and Honour in which he plays an Irish boxer forced to break the last promise he made to his dying wife in order to save their son's life.

It's written, directed an produced by Mark Mahon and also stars Patrick Bergin, Vinnie Jones and Richard Chamberlain.

Warners Bros has announced that it has taken rights to Skulduggery Pleasant, the first in a nine-title series of children's books by Irish writer Derek Landy. It's set in contemporary Dublin and features a skeleton detective who struggles to avert the return of 'the Faceless Ones'.

Cillian Murphy is in negotiations to star in playwright Mark O'Rowe's comedy Perrier's Bounty , which will be directed by Ian Fitzgibbon and will start shooting next year. It's being co-produced by Allan Moloney's Parallel and Number 9 Films.

The greening of Cannes found its most spectacular expression with U2 performing live on the red carpet outside the Palais des Festivals at 12.30am before a gala screening of footage from U2 3D, a revolutionary blend of digital 3D imagery and Surround Sound that simulates the unique excitement of a live concert.

They claim it has the potential to be for 3D "what The Jazz Singer was for talkies". Watching it you feel that Bono is about to touch you when he waves his arm. You duck to avoid being hit by the guitars. It seems likely to launch a lucrative business providing live 3D broadcasts not just of concerts but of sports events such as the Formula One Grand Prix or the All Ireland finals.