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April 2016

Risteard Ó Domhnaill: From Corrib gas to a battle for the future of the Atlantic

By: 
Ian Maleney - Irish Times

Risteard Ó Domhnaill follows up his Corrib gas documentary with a remarkable new film about the political, economic and environmental threats to the Atlantic Ocean

 

‘It’s a story that hasn’t really been told. People don’t understand it.”

 
Still from Atlantic: Jerry Early, an Arranmore salmon fisherman whose livelihood was destroyed by a change in the law

Still from Atlantic: Jerry Early, an Arranmore salmon fisherman whose livelihood was destroyed by a change in the law

 

Risteard Ó Domhnaill, a filmmaker born and raised on the landlocked fields of Co Tipperary, is the first to admit that, for the average landlubber, it can be hard to picture the life of the sea, to get a sense of how the people who work it live their lives.

Ireland’s waters cover an area 10 times the size of our landmass and contain some of the richest fishing in Europe, but Ó Domhnaill contends that we continually “turn our back” on that valuable resource.

Posted Date: 
30 April 2016

Brendan Gleeson: Ireland 'has not valued' resources and communities

By: 
Ed Carty - Irish Independent

Film star Brendan Gleeson has said Ireland needs to show some self-respect and reclaim its valuable oil, gas and fish resources.

Fisherman Jerry Early from the documentary The Atlantic. Photo: Szymon Lazewski/PA Wire

Fisherman Jerry Early from the documentary The Atlantic. Photo: Szymon Lazewski/PA Wire

 

The Emmy award winner said he was inspired to support a new documentary The Atlantic after witnessing the bullying and slow death of coastal communities.

The feature-length film - from the maker of The Pipe, which explored Shell's Corrib Gas project in Co Mayo - examines the exploitation of finite resources off Irish shores, and Newfoundland and Norway.

And it gets unprecedented whistle-blower access to the workings of a super-trawler - a mammoth factory ship which drags nets the size of football pitches to scoop up tonnes of fish at a time.

Gleeson said: "I feel that we haven't valued either the resources or the communities that can live from them.

"What I meant by self-respect was in our own terms of self-respect, as a nation in looking after the communities.

"We are hammering the small man and we are legitimising these massive factory ships."

Posted Date: 
30 April 2016

Director Risteard Ó Domhnaill talks 'Atlantic'; in cinemas April 29th

By: 
Seán Brosnan - IFTN
With ‘Atlantic’ hitting cinemas on Friday, April 29th, we talk to filmmaker Risteard Ó Domhnaill.
Posted Date: 
30 April 2016

Podcast: The Insider talks to Risteard O Domhnaill, director of Atlantic

By: 
Entertainment.ie

On this week's Insider Podcast, we spoke to Risteard O'Domhnaill, director of landmark Irish documentary The Pipe and his most recent work, Atlantic.

The documentary follows the story of three communities - Ireland, Norway and Newfoundland - and the effects of globalisation, over-fishing and the oil industry has on them. O'Domhnaill's work on The Pipe grew out of his own involvement with filming the scenes at Rossport for news organisation.

Posted Date: 
30 April 2016

Catch It While You Can

By: 
Jamie Goldrick - Rabble.ie

Jamie Goldrick caught up with Risteard O Domhnaill to talk about his new film Atlantic He explains how the roots of this project started in Rossport while filming The Pipe, his experience with crowdfunding, and the struggles of finding broadcasters for politically sensitive issues.

To finance the film, you raised a substantial amount of cash through crowdfunding, would you be in a hurry to go this route again, do you see it as a sustainable way to make films?

It is very difficult, there is a lot of time involved, and we did very well. We put a good six weeks work into it, plus preparation. For the amount we wanted to raise, the best thing to do is to go get broadcast or film fund funding.

We raised €56,000 in total. I would go back to crowdfunding, but for smaller projects. For a lot of projects that have a political or investigative slant, the options are being squeezed more and more each year. There is less and less facilitation for telling contentious stories.

Posted Date: 
26 April 2016

Risteard Ó Domhnaill's new documentary 'Atlantic' focuses on fishing industry

By: 
Ellie O’Byrne - Irish Examiner

After impressing with The Pipe, Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s new film focuses on the fishing industry, writes Ellie O’Byrne

Posted Date: 
26 April 2016

Threat to fishing communities is laid starkly bare in new film

By: 
Siobhán Cronin - The Southern Star

Irish director Richie O’Donnell tells Siobhán Cronin why his earlier film on the Corrib gasfield led him to document the struggles of Irish fishermen in his fascinating new movie.

Threat to fishing communities is laid starkly bare in new film

CASTLETOWNBERE features in a new Irish movie which examines the threat to our fishing industry and the battle for our natural resources.

Atlantic, a movie by award-winning director Richie O’Donnell, has already won the Best Irish Documentary at the recent Dublin International Film Festival.
Richie has form in documenting the struggles of coastal communities – having directed the much-respected film on the Corrib Gas controversy in Mayo, The Pipe.

Posted Date: 
8 April 2016

First Irish oil ‘years away’

By: 
Geoff Percival - Irish Examiner

Commercial oil production from offshore Irish licences will not become a reality until at least 2023, one leading player has said.

 

 

British explorer Europa Oil and Gas has a number of licences and prospects off the west coast and is in line for more when the second phase of options from the recent Atlantic Margin Licensing Round are awarded next month.

Posted Date: 
8 April 2016

No natural resources

By: 
Micheál Ó Seighin - Letter to Irish Daily Mail

Ever the master of the poor mouth, Enda Kenny is reported in your edition of March 16 as explaining to a select gathering of movers and shakers in Washington (specifically at a dinner in the house of the vice president Joe Biden) that Ireland is '.. an island which lacks natural resources'.

Posted Date: 
3 April 2016

Shell Ireland gets €50m injection for Corrib Gas

By: 
Gordon Deegan - Irish Examiner

Shell Ireland has received a further €50m cash injection from oil giant Shell, as the Irish firm finally generates revenues from the long-delayed and controversial €3.6bn Corrib Gas field.

 

Posted Date: 
3 April 2016