The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
TWO men from opposite ends of the world convened in Kilrush last week to discuss the possibility of shooting a film based in the west Clare town.
Joe Riley, now living in Sydney had his autobiography (initially known as Ghosts of Kilrush and now as Life in Kilrush) published a number of years ago and he was in west Clare to meet Chris Cusack from Grafton Productions in Hollywood.
“What’s happened is the film rights, I sold them to an American company in Hollywood. The film producer has flown from LA to here, and I’ve come from Australia to here,” said Joe.
While there is no indication yet as to when production might start, he said that a script has been written, various other preparations made and an overall investment of in the region of one million dollars made.
“I haven’t come from Australia for the fun of it, and he hasn’t come from LA for the fun of it,” added Joe.
Speaking last Friday he said that they had been visiting various places mentioned in the book. “We’ve been going to different parts of the town, seeing where things are. Yesterday we were at Moyasta, to have a look at the railway place there; way back, I actually arrived here by train!”
As a young boy Joe was brought from England to Kilrush, and grew up locally.
“It’s the story of a young kid brought here at the age of four, I was practically abandoned here by my father. I was brought up by an Irish Catholic family and it’s a story about the family, life in Kilrush and life in the 1940s and ‘50s.”
Times were very different then, and he has warm memories of his Kilrush childhood.
“Life was hard in those days, but it was all good. They were great people, they were brought up with religion and died with it. Wonderful, wonderful people, wonderful culture. It was a great place to be brought up in, great memories.”
Scattery Island was a living place at the time, as Joe recalled, “I was an altar boy and I used to go out to Scattery Island with Father Ryan, we’d have mass on a Saturday, in those days there was a community there. This would be in the 40s or early 50s. I’m 80 years of age now, I’m getting on in years!”
Joe left Kilrush at a relatively young age, and while he has made visits back, he has lived in many places around the world.
“I was a nurse for most of my life. I ended up as a professor of nursing in a university. I travelled the world, I was a director of nursing in the UK, a director of education. I worked in Saudi and Singapore and ended up in Australia. It’s great when I can get back here on the odd occasion.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
