This article is from page 34 of the 2007-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 34 JPG
THE focus of Europe will be on Gort this week as an RTE documentary on the town’s Brazilian population takes centre stage at the Prix Europa, Europe’s foremost media and televi- sion awards ceremony.
The documentary, entitled ‘Lit- tle Brazil, Gort, Ireland’ – one of eight Irish entries to have made the final shortlist – was first screened on October 5, 2006.
The documentary paints a portrait of Brazilian immigrant life in Ire- land in general and has a particular focus on how Gort has coped with
the huge influx of South American workers and their families.
Gort’s Brazilian story started 10 years ago when the town of Villa Fabril, a small rural village in cen- tral Brazil, was devastated by the collapse of their local meat plant, owned by the major international beef company Reibol.
More than 900 men and women were left with no work and the plant’s closure triggered a massive wave of emigration that would in time com- pletely transform everyday life in the market town of Gort.
Within months of the shutdown the company’s Cork-born export man-
ager Jerry O’Callaghan had stepped in and set in train a series of events that would change forever the lives of many of the redundant workers and their families.
At first, just a trickle of young men left from Villa Fabril, but within a year a rapidly growing exodus of Brazilian emigrants was _ heading for Ireland to work not just in meat factories but on farms, building sites, shops, factories and nursing homes.
The documentary, which was pro- duced by Caroline Bleahen and presented by Jim Fahy, tells a some- times heart-warming, at times heart- breaking, story of the first genera-
tion of factory workers who set out to build new lives for themselves in Ireland.
Filmed in Brazil and south Galway, the documentary is both a portrait of Brazilian immigrant life in Ireland today – mirroring many of the past experiences of Irish emigrants to England and the US – and an analysis of how the town has coped with such a huge influx of South American workers and their families.
The documentary will represent Ireland in the Prix Europa Iris cat- egory at the awards, which take place from October 13 to 20 in Berlin and Potsdam in Germany.