BBC (Bristol) have been in touch with the committee of Kinvara’s Cruinniú na mBád concerning the making of another film of that colourful traditional boat festival. Last autumn the BBC showed a half-hour long film made during the 1986 Cruinniú and their audience research revealed a very positive reaction.
The tenth Cruinniú to be held in August 1988 will not, as in previous years, be held early in the month. The reason for that is that the times for high-tide at the weekends in early August are particularly inconvenient for the traditional format of the three day event. Therefore, the committee had no option but to put it back to the last weekend of the month.
Last Tuesday, January 1st, the world priemere of the new film “Turf Boats of Galway” was shown in Kinvara and the local makers of this hour long film have made arrangements for marketing 2,000 copies of it, mainly in the U.S. market. If the country at large needs an example of enterprise, this is it.
Behind the film is local man Gerard Conneely, who produced and directed the filming. Shooting totalled five hours and it was conducted earlier this year. Tomás Rua Mac An Iomaire of Carraroe was the cameraman and his brother Liam, was the narrator. Because there are two tracts attached to the film there can be two narrations, and one of these in Irish. Dolores Keane, the popular ballad singer, provides background music. The film will be made into a video cassette tape, suitable for use in the most ordinary video equipment both at home and abroad.
The main target for this tape will be the identified market of Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, where people with Galway connections live. At present the issue of 2,000 tapes is looked on as sufficient for this first venture.
Gerard Conneely said yesterday; “Our aim is to break even with this venture and with the capital outlay recouped, to undertake another similar video later on in the year.”
The film basically concerns the history of turf boats in use in Galway Bay, from the earliest visual records to the last boats in the 1940’s. There are several old photographs intermingled in the story, as well as such historic photographs as that of the family group conversing with Charles Sturt Parnell at the Quay, Kinvara on November 9th, 1886, two days before the famous Galway Election, involving Captain O’Shea, husband of Parnell’s subsequent wife, Kitty O’Shea.
There are many delightful shots of Cruinniú na mBád and the revival of the Hooker Festivals in recent years. All in all a delightful film and one to be seen for its visual quality and the nostalgia evoked. The exiles will be pleased with its content and the expertise displayed throughout its production.
(abridged)
For the curious there is a fascinating connection between Connemara badoirí and Kinvara Pier – pointed out by that brilliant Cruinniú organiser and founder, Tony Moylan.
Along the pier wall is a capping of concrete applied in the 19th century. Here and there in the concrete are footprints. The legend is that while the concrete was drying some boats of turf arrived from Connemara and the badoirí in clambering ashore sank their footwear in it.
The Burren and Beyond 