This article is from page 6 of the 2013-06-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
A COROFIN actress has won a starring role in a new feature film, set to start shooting later this month. Fresh from her success in the All Ireland Drama Awards last month, Maura Clancy, will feature in a big screen adaptation of the 2013 novel ‘A Nightingale Falling’ by Kilnaboy writer and broadcaster, PJ Curtis.
The film explores the difficulty faced by many southern Irish Protestants during the Irish War of Independence. Though a work of fiction, the novel was inspired by a family who lived close to PJ in North Clare.
“The genesis of the story begins here [in Kilnaboy], where there were two Protestant sister who came under some suspicion and even some ostracisation during the Irish War of Independence,” he said.
“It was a very difficult time for the Protestant Irish living in Ireland. They were perceived as being sympathetic, if not in down right in cahoots with the British Army and later the Black and Tans.
“This was the inspiration for my story and the idea grew from there. One of the sisters in the story wakes up one morning and there is a body of an almost dead soldier on her doorstep. They take him indoors and set about doing the best they can for him. As they nurse him back to health they realise that they are in a bit of a dilemma – if they give him back to the army, they know that the IRA will hear about it, but if they give him to the IRA, then the Black and Tans will see to him. So they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”
The film features and impressive cast including Tara Breathnach, Muireann Bird and Gerard McCarthy and will begin shooting next month in Offaly. Tara is currently starring in The Last Days of Anne Boleyn on BBC2, Muireann Bird has just completed a UK and Irish tour of Brian Friel’s Translations and Gerard McCarthy is currently on our screens in the hugely successful BBC series The Fall.
The film is scheduled to be completed in 2014.