More Movie Making for Mayo says Martin

mayo | arts and media | news report Monday September 12, 2005 15:08 by Cllr Keith Martin - Independent

More film projects for Mayo

Two new filming projects announced by Mayo Film Board Liaison

The Mayo liaison for the Irish Film Board, Keith Martin, has announced two new filming projects which will be coming to the county over the next two months. Keith has been working with other projects including the Patrick Bergin Feature Film "Secret of the Cave" which was recently filmed on Achill Island.


Keith says parts of a new a six part comedy series for RTE entitled ‘The Last Furlong" will be filmed in Westport and Newport. The program is being made by Great Western Films who made the highly successful Bachelors Walk series. It also stars Simon Delaney who also starred in Bachelors Walk and the cast includes cast with Orla Fitzgerald (The Wind That Shakes The Barley), Garret Keogh (Veronica Guerin, Evelyn) and Simon Keogh (Fair City).


Written by ‘Bachelors Walk’ scribe Kieran Carney, the comedy series features Delaney playing the character of Diogo Bernardo Furlong, a Portuguese cabaret singer who returns to Ireland to scatter the ashes of his dead Portuguese mother on the grave of his Irish father.


‘The Last Furlong’ is due to be aired on RTE2 7th November 2005 as part of RTE’s successful Monday night comedy slot. Keith also announced that TV3 are planning an Outside Broadcast from Westport in October.


Mayo has been enjoying a resurgent interest in filming of late and according to Keith 2005 will be a record breaking year. Keith says "Mayo is drawing film makers with all sorts of projects. This year we have had a feature film, a major advertisement for Calvin Kleine and now we have a RTE comedy series which will be followed by the TV3 broadcast. Each of these projects greatly add to our local economies. There is the direct investment during filming of accommodation, extras, food and local hire then there is the spin off from tourism which we saw on a large scale with films like "The Field" and "The Quiet Man". Westport got a taste of this with the success of the Guinness ad which is bringing tourists to town and will do so for years to come. The costs of running a film office will be recovered through this. I estimate that the direct spend from film-making in Mayo this year alone runs into about €250,000. If we take into effect the revenue that will be generated by tourism and people wanting to visit the beautiful locations the figure is doubled.


Keith is the proponent of a Film Board for Mayo adds that he was delighted by Hollywod Actor Patrick Bergin's support and enthusiasm for a Mayo Film Board. The star of "Sleeping with the enemy" gave his backing to a film board earlier in the year saying "If it was up to me I would be filming in Mayo all the time. It has great scenery and while it is a little far from Dublin, as locals get more interested in film, get trained up a little you will be able to get a crew together locally and that is the big thing."

Keith says Mayo needs a film office to promote itself as a venue for filming be it television, documentary, adverts or feature films. The benefits from filming are employment, direct large-scale investment in local communities and a spin off benefit to tourism through Mayo scenery being portrayed on screen throughout the world.