An Atlantic island has become a Hollywood star. Unassuming Achill, off County Mayo, Ireland, is the backdrop for Martin McDonagh’s Oscar-tipped The Banshees of Inisherin, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Surrounded by sweeps of golden beach broken by steel grey sea cliffs, among the highest in Europe, Achill makes an achingly beautiful, and utterly remote, stage set. Sitting at my desk on the island’s west coast, looking out over the ocean, I know there’s nothing but raging wind and waves between me and America. In 1987, when British businessman Don Allum rowed solo 2,500 miles across the Atlantic, it was Achill he beached up on. Our car headlights guided him in. McDonagh might have thrust us into the spotlight, but we remain at the very edge of Europe. […]
First published in The Financial Times on 4 November 2022. Read online here.
Photo credit (fair use): Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin [ © Searchlight Pictures / 20th Century Studios]