Banshees and blue raincoats - the summer when Hollywood came to Achill
Francis Van Maele with Colin Farrell during the filming of The Banshees of Insherin.
Surely Leonard Cohen wouldn’t mind if we pinch the title of one of his most famous works in the service of Achill’s cinenmatic involvement in , now looking Oscar-bound. Serendipitously, as we were ‘pandemically’ launching Achill Painters at Scoil Acla in July 2020, ‘Banshees’ movie wheels were already moving in Westport and on Achill, as we came upon film people scouting for locations more than once.
A year later, the net had been cast for ‘extras wanted’, and on July 16, scores of island folk (and some cheeky interlopers) signed up for Covid tests, costume fittings and the whole enchilada. The island was invaded slowly by fleets of Dublin and UK-registered jeeps and Land Rovers flying about, and once the movie purse loosened social media exploded. From then on, businesses like Gielty's Bar and Restaurant, the Takeaway at Keel, The Cliff House Hotel, Teach Cruachan, Ham and Francis in Red Fox Press, Sweeney's Super Valu, and many others on the island began to feel the presence of this blockbuster.
By September 18, Colin Farrell (gasp!) had been spotted at the chip shop, roads were being closed, JJ Devine’s pub had appeared from the mists on the Atlantic Drive, Purteen harbour was cordoned off, we had discovered that Farrell was staying in Askil, and the construction of a little village began down at Purteen.
O’Riordan's shop went up as the fishermen’s co-op disappeared behind old ‘cottage fronts’. A large Celtic cross was erected in the middle of the ‘village’, Sean Fury’s (Galway hooker) was tied up at anchor, and cameras rolled on September 28. Ham and Francis of Red Fox Press in Dugort enjoyed the privilege of both watching the film being made just yards from their door as a local house was turned into ‘Kilbane's’ and having a visit from Colin Farrell.
Yet more nearby activity at St Thomas’ Church, as a fleet of white trucks, parked all over The Colony, with snaking wires, spotlights and movie ‘stuff’ overflowing from their gaping doors. What Edward Nangle would have made of it all (especially given that his Protestant church was a Catholic church in the movie!), heaven only knows.
In a rush of blood to the head in July ‘21, ‘forgetting’ that I had to return to post-summer reality to get my daughter into her Leaving Cert year a few weeks later, I applied for work as an extra, getting as far as passing my movie Covid test at Dooega, and thence on to the costume fitting stage. That’s when time ran out, but later, upon return, we managed to gawp at the ‘famous blue raincoats’ that so many extras mentioned when reminiscing about their time on set.
The raincoats were accompanied by a supply of rugs and blankets for colder days and were just another amazing part of the production’s logistics. The enormous storage of sets at Dooega, consisting of street lights, wooden barrels, carts, creels, lobster pots and mountains of coiled ropes, etc, was eye-popping, as was the evolution of light timber sheeting, nails, glue, plaster and paint, into pubs, shops and houses. Every extra spoke of the attention to detail paid in set design (correct newspaper dates etc), clothing, shoes, boots, hats, hairstyles, etc, as well as the sumptuousness of the food provided daily.
Upon hearing some of the negations between film folk and boat owners as they were settling on a fee to get their modern boats out of the water before filming began, we wanted to scream at the locals 'ask for more!'. There’s always money falling out of the sky on movie projects like Banshees, and I know that from a book I wrote years ago about MGM’s making of in our neck of the woods in Caherlistrane fado.
I took photographs of sets and filming all across the island, heard chat concerning the shock many locals felt when tax was deducted from their first payslips, was told too that a chap was on hand at Keem to keep the sheep out of ‘shot’ as much as possible, and kept getting recurring feedback that Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell were absolutely 'sound'.
As all of this was happening, an entirely separate Finnish film production, which filmed around Corraun and elsewhere, had set up shop in the Achill Head Hotel. From there, you could see down to the antics in Purteen, and from the harbour you could look up at the ‘My Sailor, My Love’ crew. They were coming and going from the hotel, and darting in and out of their large white double-decker buses, fully kitted out with beds, eating areas and office space.
Day after day, the sun blazed down on both productions, and extras too have also spoken of the memorable day a double rainbow exploded over Minnaun as filming progressed at Purteen, all hoping that the scene would make the final cut. The last days of filming ‘Banshees’ at Keem, towards late October, were drizzly, damp and windy, and the two marquees down there were flittered and flapped about in gales. Near the fisherman’s hut, lots of large gas cylinders were stored and primed for use (pointing to a possible ominous denoument in the film), and a very large homemade wooden rocking chair was to be seen outdoors too, creaking back and forth in the wind.
The 2021 Cill Damhnait calendar has a delicious feature on 'Banshees' extras (mentioning the likes of John Sweeney, Irvin Moran, Michael John Needham, Louise McGinty and Cathy Lynchchaun), while I will thank here those who generously shared their movie experience. They include Hannah T., Rosina O’T., Siobhan Everard, Grainne O'Hagan, Charlotte Cusack McNamara, and friends, plus David McNamara and his two daughters. Others who shared wonderful details were Anthony Lysycia, Karl McCloskey plus wife Mary and daughter Roisin, Pat Hughes, and Mary Jo Needham.
* Mary J Murphy is the author of (2012) and (2020) and is working on a photo booklet of the making of on Achill Island.
