A close-up of Cork's influence on Hollywood's big and small screens
Actor Gregory Peck on the set of the film 'Moby Dick' at Youghal, Co. Cork 09/07/1954 Ref. 765G Old black and white movies films acting whaling
As filming of the fifth season of that quintessentially Cork creation, , continues in various locations around the city, it recalled memories of other times the Rebel county and city featured in movie or TV creations which put the spotlight on our beloved native sod or fód dhúchais.
Though the globally popular comedy following the escapades of Conor McSweeney and Jock O'Keeffe and their bar-code haircuts is the latest title to feature Cork in a starring role, you have to go back more than 100 years when Cork first featured in the moving pictures. There was cinematic life in Cork before Cillian Murphy!
The Horgan Brothers of Youghal were cinematic pioneers in the late 1800s and into the first decades of the 20th century. According to a soon to be launched book by Darina Clancy and published by Mercier, the brothers "captured Ireland during its transformation from British rule to an Independent Republic".
They preserved pivotal moments in Ireland’s history: portraits of First World War soldiers who never returned home, volunteer camps, and the political activists who would shape the nation’s destiny. This stunning collection brings their world to life again, offering a remarkable window into an Ireland that was vanishing even as they preserved it on film."
Their work earned them the title of 'the Irish Lumieres', likening them to the Lumiere brothers of Paris who were also doing pioneering work in world of film around the same time period.
In their turn the Horgan brothers were featured in a TG4 documentary which aired on the Irish language TV station last Christmas and the book of that movie is to be launched next week by Mercier Press.
It's also worth pointing out that this is not a definitive list but rather a selection which showed Cork at its best and didn't let down the Rebel County by being a total dud.
For example, if you were doing a similar story about Kerry, you might focus on and ignore completely , the movie which starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in a cod Irish melodrama.
There are one or two Cork movies which fall into that category and one which comes to mind is starring Wimbledon hard man Vinny Jones and Michael Madsen.
Back to Youghal: is one of the great works of English language literature and the novel penned by James Melville which begins with the immortal words, Call me Ishmael, has given rise to a number of film versions, the greatest of which was filmed off the Cork coast in 1958.
Starring Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart, the town of Youghal enjoyed a tourism boom as a result as it was the base for the production which was directed by legendary movie-maker John Huston, after whom the School of Film in the University of Galway is named.
An iconic viaduct at Carrigabrick near Fermoy proved to be the dramatic backdrop for a memorable stunt from a classic World War 1 movie released in 1966. starred George Peppard, later to feature in the 80s TV hit, , James Mason and Ursula Andress (who had starred in , the first James Bond movie a few years earlier).
The aerial acrobatics of the World War One bi-planes of the movie were to film-making at that time what were in more recent times.
starring Aidan Quinn and directed by Aisling Walsh was set in a disused secondary school in Baile Mhuirne, Coláiste Íosagáin.
That was where this writer went to secondary school and it featured Quinn in a role as a teacher of what seemed like starved orphan boys who were mistreated by the religious order of men who ran the school.
To be quite honest the scenes depicted in this film bore no resemblance to real life in Coláiste Íosagáin which, while no bed of daisies, was far more welcoming and less cruel than the austere school life shown in , which is based on a book by Patrick Galvin.
The highlight of this particular show-reel, however, has to be the 2005 film , a film which gave Siobhán McSweeney (of fame) her big break from which she has never looked back.
This was shot in towns around Cork including Timoleague, Bandon and Ballyvourney as well as Cúil Aodha, my own village.
The opening scene showing a game of hurling being played on a fairly rough and ready field is where my schoolfriends and I played football in our younger days. A farm up the road from where I live now was one of the main locations and featured in a scene in which the Black and Tans murdered an Irish man during a raid.
Another Cork movie starring the Ballintemple actor is which is based on the Enda Walsh play.
For this reporter's money, the theatre version of the work in which Eileen Walsh is more memorable but the film definitely set Murphy on the trajectory which has earned him an Academy Award for his role in .
Which brings us up to 2016 and the movie version of , a film which merits inclusion for the outstanding quality of comedic gold.
It has led to four seasons of which are repeated regularly on RTÉ and BBC and bear watching and re-watching. A fifth season in in the works and will be released later this year or maybe early in 2026. I can't wait.
In the next few months, a film shot mainly on Cork's northside, , is set to be the star of several film festivals.
While Cork's past earns us a place on Hollywood's Boulevard of Fame, the future, if it's seized, could be even more promising.
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