A young Donegal filmmaker has composed a striking tribute to his grandfather and homeplace, which will be aired today as the Angelus on RTE One.
Bardán Mc Guire from Glencolmcille sadly lost his grandfather John Mc Guire of Cashel last month.
John had been ill with severe COPD for the past four years. Bardán wanted to use his film skills to bring a sample of John’s beloved homeplace, in video form, to watch from his hospital bed.
Those video clips of An Port and An Túras Colm Cille became the foundation of a ‘People’s Angelus’ that the nation will view at 6pm this evening before the Six One News. Sadly, John passed before he could see the finished production.
Bardán Mc Guire
John was affectionately known as ‘Pappie’ by his grandchildren.
“After Pappie became ill he couldn’t go out to An Port anymore so I decided to make a Peoples Angelus for him to show him in his room in Killybegs Hospital. I started shooting the piece and had it 90% finished when weather stopped me from filming,” Bardán said.
“Sadly, Pappie died this February before I could finish the piece, and the day after his funeral I went out to An Port and shot the few scenes I needed to shoot to finish the piece.”
The finished video includes shots of the standing stones of An Túras Colm Cille in Glencolmcille and an Port.
It was immediately accepted by RTE.
The late John Mc Guire, Cashel, Glencolmcille
Bardán’s work is a powerful tribute to a great man and the place where his family’s legacy lies.
“When I was younger, my grandfather, who we knew as “Pappie” used to drive us out to the valley and bay of An Port in Glencolmcille, to pick dilisc, carrageen moss, slog, barneachs and wilks,” Bardán said.
“We would take them home to Glen and either dry the seaweed and cook the barneachs and wilks and feast on them.
“An Port was where Pappie’s mother, Aggie Dinis Mc Ginley (daughter of the last person to die in An Port), was born and it was his spiritual home, and it became ours.”
John, who passed in mid-February, was a well-known character, a skilled fisherman and a talented musician.
“He was his own man, and taught us everything from how to catch fish, save turf and grow spuds. How there was a right way and a wrong way to do anything. But especially I suppose, the great value in spinning and listening to any old yarn, because you get to understand someone by the stories that they tell you, and how they respond to your stories,” Bardán said.
Bardán graduated with a degree in Film and Media Production at ATU Donegal last year, alongside his twin brother Dominic, who did the same programme. They were the first members of their family to graduate from university. Bardán now applies his skills in colour grading and Dominic works in script writing.