Proceeds of movie premiere go to Unicef

Red carpet and purple balloons brought a touch of glitz to Dublin's O'Connell Street last night for the European premier of Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto.

Director Neil Jordan and most of the cast of the film, including Brendan Gleeson and Stephen Rea, turned out to be cheered by up to 200 well-wishers gathered outside the Savoy Cinema.

Guests included U2 singer Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson; Christy Moore; Ralph Fiennes; Shane McGowan; and Guggi.

Liam Neeson was unable to attend due to filming in New Mexico on his latest movie.

With 700 guests, the charity premier promised to raise €100,000 for Unicef. Both Neeson and Rea are Unicef Ireland ambassadors and they thanked Neil Jordan for gifting the premiere to the charity.

"Both Liam and I have been to Africa and seen first hand the devastation that HIV/Aids is causing to children," Rea said.

"Every euro raised by this evening's premiere will help Unicef Ireland bring hope to children whose lives have been torn apart."

Set in the 1970s, Breakfast on Pluto follows the story of cross-dressing Patrick "Kitten" Braden, played by Cillian Murphy.

Braden is the child of an affair between a village priest, played by Liam Neeson, and his housekeeper, played by Eva Birthistle.

Having honed his dressmaking skills and adopted the name Kitten, Braden leaves the fictional town of Tyreelin for London to find his mother, but finds himself caught up in a series of misadventures.

The story is based on Pat McCabe's best-selling novel of the same name and is the second collaboration between Jordan and McCabe.

The film has been on release in the US since November and Cillian Murphy has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. Speaking at the premiere Murphy described donning a dress for his part as a young Irish transvestite as "interesting".

It also stars Liam Cunningham, Bryan Ferry, Gavin Friday, Ian Hart and Ruth Negga.