For Terence Mulligan, founder of the Craic Fest, the annual New York Irish film and music bash, his work has been a 10-year labor of love, and this year's lineup is the most ambitious yet. CAHIR O' DOHERTY asks Mulligan what festival-goers can expect this time around.

TEN years ago Terence Mulligan, the founding producer of the annual Craic Festival, was checking out the latest Irish films in Dublin when he wondered what would happen if he showcased the ones that had impressed him most in a big headline event in New York City?

That simple question, he recalls, heralded the birth of the annual event now commonly known as the Craic Fest. Mulligan guessed correctly that the audience reaction here would be positive, and so he decided to create a new Irish festival on the spot. Starting from scratch, a few things worked in his favor.

Firstly, he was young and nave; secondly, he imagined it wouldn't actually cost a great deal to bring the films over to the States; and thirdly, he knew there was a ready-made Irish audience just waiting in Manhattan.

As Mulligan suspected, from the day it was announced the Craic Fest took on a life of its own. Beginning as a two-day celebration of Irish film in the heart of the city, it was smooth running - if a bit rough around the edges in the Irish way - and unlike other film festivals it featured the unusual sight of visiting Hollywood movie stars mingling happily for once among ordinary mortals. This was something new.

Not surprisingly it took off, and very quickly Irish music became a central part of the Craic Fest too, helping to expand its reach.

Each year the format stays more or less the same - first come the film screenings, then the music gigs, with the emphasis on live performances and maintaining the festival atmosphere throughout, adding a real show business gloss to the proceedings.

With its unique blend of business, art and rock 'n' roll the Craic Fest was a success from day one and in 2008, it's 10th anniversary, it's now the undisputed showcase event for new Irish films (and Irish singers) in America.

"The Craic is really only as good as its last show. That's why this year we worked really hard to put a stellar lineup together in terms of the films we've selected - and we've also got the best music lineup we've ever had, period," Mulligan told the Irish Voice.

"It took six months to put it all together but it was worth it, because for the three days of the festival the cream of the crop coming out of Ireland will be showcased here."

Mulligan's right about that, because in 2008 he's assembled the strongest lineup of Irish singing talent seen in New York in a decade. On the festival's opening night on March 6, the 20-year-old piano playing, Dublin-born rhythm and blues sensation Laura Izibor will play, followed by Gemma Hayes (a past winner of the Best Irish Female Artist Meteor Award), and recent Irish sensation Mundy. In a distinct nod to the tastes of local Irish music fans here in the city, the New York based Irish band Mr. North will also headline the first night.

"Those are very strong international and local acts with huge followings. Mr. North has a huge local following and the other acts are a brilliant curtain raiser," says Mulligan.

All of the Craic Fest's music gigs will be staged at the Mercury Lounge, the downtown hipster's venue of choice, which gives an indication of the growing crossover appeal of the festival itself. Mulligan knows he can expect huge crowds. The headline act on day two of the fest, for example, is bona fide star and crowd puller Damien Dempsey, supported by Belfast-born Dan Donnelly.

"I've been trying to book Damien Dempsey to appear for three years and I'm really looking forward to his gig because he has literally thousands of fans in New York that love his stuff. I'm expecting that Friday night will be completely insane," Mulligan maintains.

Day three of the music sees a concert from David Kitt, the soulful young Irish singer who's on his way to stardom, and Bangor singer Foy Vance, a man blessed with an extraordinary voice and the songs to highlight it.

Since its inception the Craic Fest has always had an Irish and Irish American core audience in New York, but as Mulligan says, this festival is really for everyone.

To underscore that idea this year the festival will open with a sneak preview next Wednesday, February 6, with a special screening of Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh's first feature film (which he also directed) In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes and Brendan Gleeson. A jet black comedy about two hit men on the lam in Belgium, it will be introduced by Farrell himself, giving an A-List Hollywood boost to the festival and the film.

Kings, directed by Tom Collins and starring Irish actor Colm Meaney, will open the second night of the festival. The film has already been selected as Ireland's entry for best foreign-language film at the Academy Awards, the first time an Irish language film has been entered in the Oscar race.

Kings is adapted from Jimmy Murphy's play Kings of the Kilburn High Road, about Irish-speaking laborers searching for (and sometimes losing) their identity in an anonymous London suburb.

Another Irish megastar will also be on hand for the third night when no less a star than Shane MacGowan himself attends a screening of If I Should Fall From Grace - the Shane MacGowan Story, directed by Sarah Share.

This unmissable documentary looks at the effects of the hard drinking and drugging MacGowan indulged in, including his mighty fall from grace and, in the all years after that, his amazing resilience. MacGowan is justifiably revered in Ireland, because his genius was to identify a real connection between the spirit of Irish traditional music and the anarchy of punk rock.

Better yet, he figured out what to do with it. Two recent polls declared his "Fairytale of New York" to be the best Irish song ever written.

MacGowan's appearance is the kind of boost that public relations companies can only dream of, and it will help kick this year's Craic Fest into the stratosphere.

Although there's no question that the festival's growing profile will smooth away the scrappy edges that made it such an accessible event, the star wattage that it's attracting these days will mean that its legacy is increasingly assured.

"We're getting support from the City Council and the Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as from corporate sponsors like Con Edison, NBC, Time Warner and the Embassy Suites. That support allows us to secure the talent and films we need year after year - besides passing the hat around like they do in church!" says Mulligan.

In its early years the Craic Fest used to be almost exclusively ex-pats or born to ex-pats, but increasingly it's more of a mix. It's people who are interested in the music and the films of Ireland who don't necessarily know or care that everything is Irish.

That's what makes it such an interesting night out. You just never know who you might meet.

The Craic Fest runs from March 6-8. For full details visit www.thecraicfest.com or call 646-549-1349. Tickets for the In Bruges screening are $20 and can be purchased at www.smarttix.com.