Sky’s the limit for photo documentary

LITTLE did two men from South Galway realise that more than 80 years after they were photographed for one of the most iconic images of this era, they would feature in a documentary in Japan.

Two workers from Shanaglish, near Gort, are sitting at either end of the ­photograph. On the extreme left, ­lighting the cigarette, is Matty O’Shaughnessy, while Patrick ‘Sonny’ Glynn is holding the bottle on the extreme right.

Proudly displayed in Whelan’s pub, Shanaglish, it has become a huge visitor attraction since it was discovered that two of the people on the steel girder were from the area.

Sónta Films will present IFTA 2013 award-nominated Men at Lunch, a feature-length documentary during the European Film Festival in Japan next month.

Director, Seán O’Cualain was also invited to go to China in the second week of June but was unable to go because he is filming the history of the GAA in the US at the same time.

The film, which premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 2012, is on track to become one of the most picked-up Irish releases of 2012/13 in the international festivals market. It enjoyed further success at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and had sold out screenings at DOC NYC, New York’s documentary festival and Amsterdam’s IDFA, the largest documentary festival in the world.

In 2007, a chance discovery of a special framed copy of the photograph in Whelan’s pub, Shanaglish, during work on another documentary led brothers Eamonn and Sean Ó Cualáin to tell the remarkable story of two of the men photographed on the beam.

Enquiring why it had pride of place on the wall, they learned from publican Michael Whelan that the photograph had come from a Boston-area man named Pat Glynn, who was convinced that his father and uncle were in the photograph.

What was known for sure was that both men had emigrated from Shanaglish in the 1920s and had found construction work in New York’s burgeoning skyscraper industry.

Narrated by actress ­Fionnuala Flanagan, Men at Lunch presents groundbreaking new research into the history of the photograph itself, alongside the extraordinary story of two Irish emigrants who went to New York in search of work and became immortalised by the skyline they helped to build.

Essentially, the two brothers used the photograph to tell an interesting story about the Irish emigrant experience.

While the absence of work records prompted some cynics to suggest the photograph was a fake, the brothers found a glass plate negative of the picture in Pittsburgh during their investigations.

In addition to finding out September 1932 was the original date for the photograph, they found another photograph with the same workers, which was believed to have been taken on the same day.

Another photograph of two photographers, which was found in the Rockefella Archive of Thomas Kelley and William Leftwitch, has prompted speculation that one of them took the famous picture.

Seán thought the documentary would do well in Ireland but its international acclaim has exceeded all his expectations.

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper was an instant sensation. It appeared on the cover of the New York Herald Tribune, which was the biggest selling newspaper of the day.

“People identify with it because it is an immigrant story. The documentary seems to run and run. It is just timeless. People are still totally fascinated with the photograph.

“We were very careful to ensure the documentary instilled the same sense of fear when you looked at the photograph,” he said.

Even though many came ­forward to claim that family members were in the photograph, no-one challenged the identity of Sonny Glynn or Matty O’Shaughnessy.

Sonny was born at the turn of the 20th century in Shanaglish and during the War of Independence, his aunt was shot dead at her front door with a baby in her arms.

While Matty O’Shaughnessy was born in Kilshanny, he died in Shanaglish. Matty was Sonny Glynn’s brother-in-law. Sonny was married to Matty’s sister.

Once they settled in New York, they invited Matty to join them in 1924.