'It was a race against time as Edna wasn't well': New film pays tribute to O'Brien

Edna O’Brien is one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers.

Despite regular backlashes from the Irish government, the Catholic Church, and the patriarchy, she fearlessly wrote stories focusing on women’s lives and loves.

In Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story, award-winning documentarian Sinéad O’Shea examines O’Brien’s life through interviews with the writer, her family, and scholars.

O’Shea’s relationship with O’Brien began several years ago, but the filmmaker admits she wasn’t overly enthusiastic about meeting the writer.

“I was commissioned to write an article about Edna, and I remember thinking it would be dull,” she recalled.

“I associated Edna with her being lightweight.

“Strangely, I had this impression of her, though if you watch the film, it’s not so strange because there was a peculiar attitude towards her in Ireland.

“I had to read her books in preparation, and they were really amazing. I met her, and she was just so charismatic; I fell in love with her and could not stop thinking about her.”

O’Shea decided to make the documentary after a chance meeting at a wedding.

“I struck up a conversation with a stranger. I quoted Edna O’Brien, and they said ‘She’s one of my best friends’. She suggested I should make a documentary about Edna.

“I went to Screen Ireland and began to develop the project, but I couldn’t get through to Edna, so I went back to that person I’d met at the wedding, who happened to be the film producer Barbara Broccoli, who makes the James Bond films.

“I asked Barbara to help me connect with Edna and sent her my previous documentary, Pray For Our Sinners.”

That film was about O’Shea returning to her home town, Navan, to explore the impact of the Catholic Church on the community in decades past.

Broccoli was eager to help the director, and contacted O’Brien on O’Shea’s behalf.

“Edna wrote to me, and we began filming in August, 2023. It was a race against time because Edna wasn’t well, and she was getting weaker and weaker.

“It has been this huge, intense piece of work.”

O’Shea spent time with O’Brien, conducting interviews with the writer. O’Brien gave her access to her diaries to gain insight into her life. The director says that, due to O’Brien’s age and declining health, the interview process was not always easy.

“Edna was very open and directed me to her diaries - that’s a very open and trusting thing to do. From a logistical point of view, it was not always easy because she was quite deaf, which was frustrating for her.

“If you were going to speak about something that was quite sensitive, you want to do that in a gentle way, but I would have to shout, which felt wrong, but we found a way around it.”

Amongst the documentary’s contributors is the Cork-based poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa, who O’Shea approached hoping that she was a fan of O’Brien. As she explains, her instinct was right.

“Doireann had written a blurb on the back of the new Clair Wills book Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets, set in Cork. Clair is a wonderful scholar of Edna’s work at Cambridge University, and I love Doireann’s writing. It occurred to me that Doireann might like Edna too, especially as she is originally from Clare, like Edna. I wrote to her, and sure enough, she was a devotee!”

The documentary is packed with archive footage, including from a film that one of O’Brien’s sons, Carlo, shot as a teenager. O’Shea says this is the film’s most significant piece.

“It’s so extraordinary. Carlo dramatised one of his mother’s books, and by doing it, he’s created a documentary with scenes of his mother and grandfather and many other family moments. The wealth of material is immense, from interviews with Edna on TV shows to footage of Edna’s famous parties, so we hired an archive producer, Paul Bell, who worked on the Asif Kapadia films Senna and Amy, and he was brilliant at shaking down the BBC.”

The documentary is narrated by award-winning actor Jessie Buckley, who reads extracts from O’Brien’s diaries. O’Shea says she knew Buckley would be perfect for the role.

“I have a poet friend, Eva H.D., who I met through my last documentary. She worked with Jessie, so I asked Eva to speak to Jessie for me, and it turned out she is a huge fan of Edna and really wanted to be part of the film. Jessie and Edna have similarities; both have this incredible star quality, so Jessie was a great fit.”

Buckley is not the only big name involved with the documentary. The actor Gabriel Byrne shares his insight into the great writer. O’Shea says Byrne’s knowledge of Irish literature is unsurpassed.

“When I was immersed in all my Edna research, I noticed there were pictures of [Edna and Gabriel] doing readings together in New York, and he had spoken on her behalf when she won [an] honour from the French government.

“He had been one of her advocates throughout her career, so I wrote to him and asked if he would be involved, and he said yes. He was so full of information and enthusiasm about the project.

“His knowledge of her work is really deep, and his knowledge of literary Ireland is really substantial.”

O’Shea hopes audiences will watch the film and reevaluate their perceptions of O’Brien.

“It’s very easy to follow your prejudices when it comes to well-known people, but it’s always worthwhile to dig a little deeper into somebody’s persona and find the truth behind the celebrity.”

Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story is in cinemas from January 31, cert 12a