FIRST OFF . . .

Actor Mickey Rourke is at the center of a controversy over comments he made at the Cannes Film Festival that he gave money to causes in Northern Ireland. But he denied on Sunday that he ever gave money to the Irish Republican Army. Rourke was denounced by British lawmakers after a news conference Friday called to promote his latest movie, “Francesco,” in which he plays St. Francis of Assisi. Asked then if he ever donated money to religious causes, Rourke replied: “Yes I have, to causes in Northern Ireland. Yes, to Joe Doherty, who is a prisoner in New York City.” Doherty, 33, was convicted of the murder of a British Army captain and sentenced to life in prison in 1981. He escaped from prison, but was captured by the FBI in 1983 and jailed in New York. Rourke issued a statement Sunday through a spokesman saying he had been involved only in humanitarian aid in Northern Ireland, never with the Irish Republican Army. If people in England “choose to use this as a platform to persecute me as an Irish Catholic American, then that is their indulgence,” he said. O’Rourke has starred in “Angel Heart,” “Barfly” and “The Pope of Greenwich Village.” Rourke may star in Falcon Films’ “The Westies,” a film about Irish gangs in New York, according to sources.