The Killarney Echo

Macalla Chill Áirne (The Killarney Echo) is set in 1837 in the west of Ireland - the shadow of hindsight hangs heavy over the proceedings. The film takes place just a few short years before "the Great Famine," which will change the country utterly - ushering out Gaelic Ireland and ushering in a new English speaking country. As well as the echoes of the lakes there is the echo of conflict. We listen to the main character, Partlán, as he tells the story of his brother, who is hiding from the constabulary in a remote area of Glenflesk. Partlán hasn‘t seen his brother in four days. Another juxtaposition comes in the stunning scenery, which contrasts and bounds back an echo in the small talk of the various actors-while visitor Jane wonders where she left her ring, we see the majesty of Purple mountain; while Micheál asks Peter to pass him a rag, the awe inspiring Eagle’s Nest looms in the background. Constantly, conflict is hinted at and rebounded through contrast, all culminating in the performance of the musicians and the thunderous finale of the cannon’s roar, which marked an end to this Victorian musical tour of antiquity.

Music and sound, of course, are central to any film and this one more than most. Being both a director and a musician from Killarney, I was well placed to bring The Killarney Echo to fruition! ‘Fáinne Geal an Lae’ - a beautiful ‘song of the spéirbhean’ set on the banks of Loch Léin, is sung over the opening scene by Partlán, as the majestic Purple Mountain soars behind him. This song and our visions of the mountains and lakes of Killarney (the base of "The Fianna" warriors of old) sets up our location firmly in an Irish speaking, still strongly Gaelic Ireland. The final song (to end the silence after the cannon’s roar) is the hauntingly beautiful & imperial ‘Splendour Falls’ by the Cambridge Singers. This piece is a poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s set to music by Frederick Delius. The poem was inspired by Lord Tennyson’s own visit to Killarney and his experience of the Killarney echo. Tennyson was Queen Victoria’s poet laureate.

In the last scene, after the tremendous and unexpected roar of cannon, we survey the splendorous mountains and scenery of Killarney. This cannon blast was a ubiquitous part of the Victorian tour of the district and marked a dramatic end to the play of the echo against the cliffs of "The Eagle's Nest." Like a regal claiming of those lands, after a brief silence, the Cambridge Gospel choir usher in a new world order, all the while looking upon splendorous visions of remote districts of the mountains and valleys of Killarney.

“Blow bugle blow set the wild echoes flying, blow bugle blow echoes dying, dying, dying.”