Forgotten Irish movies.

TCM was shut down in the UK and Ireland, it wasn't a Virgin/ Sky issue. When the Warner Bros/ Discovery merger happened, they shut down Turner Classic Movies, or TCM to everyone else.

It's frustrating, because they occasionally had some great classic films on there. But buyouts, deals, mergers and so on, killed it.

https://www.joe.ie/movies-tv/tcm-movies-closed-777880#:~:text=TCM%20Movies%2C%20one%20of%20the,stood%20for%20Turner%20Classic%20Movies.

Did anyone watch Pilgrimage? Seems like an interesting story about medieval relics, Tom Holland and Jon Berenthal star along with other Irish actors.

Found on Amazon prime uK (not Ireland, sadly) - After Midnight (1990)

Anyone seen this, rather silly knockabout comedy set in a posh Dublin hotel (filmed at Fitzpatrick's, Killiney), made by C4.

An obscure Dublin film starring Saeed Jaffrey (in a very similar part to his turn in C4's Tandoori Nights), Hayley Mills, Ian Dury, Vladek Sheybal as an Arab, A rare film about Asians in Ireland pre-Celtic Tiger. Featuring such RTE staples as Maurice 'Fr Dick Byrne' O'Donoghue, RTE sportscaster/former stooge to Kenny Cantor Brendan O'Reilly, Gerard 'Malachy from Fair City' Byrne, Pat Laffan, Mikel Murfi (Aunty Monica from the Den), veteran voiceover guy Brian Munn… Damp views of CIE buses crossing Liberty Hall, and a Harp poster.

Thanks Pat the Baker, Nokia, Premier Dairies, Spar, Murphy's Brewery, Louis Copeland, Musgrave's Cash and Carry and Cantrell and Cochrane, Brown Thomas...

Noticed a family friend in the credits, prop man Cos Egan.

I think the Fantasist was shown either late on either RTE 1 or RTE 2, or more possibly TG4 at some point, which is where I saw it. (Outside of the Blizzard of Odd discussing it).

Moira Harris later became Mrs Gary Sinise. I think they've both essentially retired from acting. Gary and Moira took care of their son, MacKenna Sinise, who died from a rare form of spinal cancer, at the age of 34. Moira herself was also battling cancer at the same time, but she survived it and has been given the all-clear.

Fate can be incredibly unpredictable. And very cruel.

Cheap, ugly, well-meaning but feels rather patronising.
Let travellers make their own films, not through the eyes of an Englishman.
Reminded of those stories about the 'poor bog Irish'.
Stan Ogden could have made a better film.

If it had been made now, I feel the director would be 'cancelled' by 'ideological bullies'.

I know trans people who absolutely love The Crying Game. There's one who says she wishes she had Jaye Davidson's voice (ie he sounds like a woman).

I think with Into the West, it's seen as a fantasy.

I always find it funny that Crossroads in 1978 had better traveller rep in their series than most Irish TV now (or at least a decade or so - i .e. Damo and Ivor - the Movie), with Maureen, Benny's minceir girlfriend and her boyfriend (played by Darragh 'son of Donogh' O'Malley).

i need to watch this lol!!

Bachelor's Walk too fits in, I even remember Simon Delaney saying thus.

State of Wonder (1984)

This film was featured at the Official Selection at the 1984 Berlinale, but doesn't seem to have got any kind of public release (at least in US or England) bar a few screenings in Kerry. Director Martin Donovan ended up having a career, with Apartment Zero (1988), Mad at the Moon (1992) and writing Death Becomes Her (1992), but this film vanished to the point when I first happened upon its imdb, I wasn't sure if it was real or not. And having watched it, I still am not quite sure.
It may be one of the most bizarre films ever made in Ireland. I thought I'd never see it, then randomly found it on Youtube, uploaded by costar Michael Halphie (semi-familiar as a renta-Arab in UK TV in the 80s).
Technically a British production but made by an Argentinian director with an international cast (including Annie Chaplin, one of Charlie's daughters) in Kerry, with a mix of professionals and local amateurs (who are all dubbed), it's hard to explain what it is. It's about a simple-minded youth in a war zone.Reminded me of Taxi Mauve (1977) and Light Years (1981)) in terms of a foreign eye on the Western Irish countryside, and Mondo Candido (1976) with scenes of a blond innocent wandering through a strange idea of Ireland's Troubles. Here, it's shot in Kerry locations with Land Rovers full of soldiers parading through fields, but everything seems to suggest it is a South American banana republic, with Spanish names, but also we have medieval style peasants, and yet everyone has British accents. With its post-synced dubbing, there's a children's TV drama vibe, It doesn't dress the locations. There are still Catholic churches and phone boxes with Telefón, but it is not Ireland. It is nowhere. The church has posters of John Lennon alongside God. There is a Diana-esque Princess and a sub-Modern Romance samba music number in a church hall. Lead Nigel Court (who only did a few Italian films later on) is a bit Lance Kerwin-ish, and forgettable enough, but he somehow works.
The climax on a beach is striking, with these almost post-apocalyptic warriors wandering about trying to overthrow the occupying soldiers.
In all, a tragic, beautiful film that hardly anyone saw, and thus I feel lucky to have seen, a few days after being reminded of it, and wondering if I would ever see it.

The most familiar faces are David and Anthony Meyer, alias Mischka and Grischka from Octopussy, playing opposite roles as outlaw leader and dictator.
Just discovered that one of the actors, Lee Warner was in EastEnders playing the oft mentioned but rarely seen Mr. Papadopoulos.