The film could not be officially banned, since it contained no sex, but the Irish government did prevent it from being screened in cinemas or by state broadcaster RTÉ. After a single press screening in Dublin in 1967 – which provoked a hostile reaction from newspapers and RTÉ – Lennon entered it for that year's Cork Film Festival, but it was rejected on the grounds that it had already been shown in the capital. It was only when the film was chosen to represent Ireland at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival that the Cork organisers were embarrassed into changing their decision at the next festival – held in September 1968. However, the organisers gave it a lunchtime screening on the day that all the media covering the Festival were invited "to a free oyster-and-Guinness lunch in Kenmore, 70 miles away." Lennon organised his own screening in Cork the following day, the resulting furore leading to a single Dublin cinema – the International Film Theatre – giving it a seven-week run to packed audiences.