News

Dunmanway native's film on storyteller Eddie

October 13th, 2016 5:32 PM

By Siobhan Cronin

With Eddie during his recent trip to Dunmanway were front, from left: Calvin Marah, Joe Higgins, Eddie, Finny O'Donovan and Brendan Hayes. Back row: Brian Collins and Amanda Murnane.

Share this article

A Dunmanway native is making a documentary on one of Ireland’s best known storytellers – Eddie Lenihan.

A DUNMANWAY native is making a documentary on one of Ireland’s best known storytellers – Eddie Lenihan.

Brendan Hayes, whose company Haze Productions, has already produced Inlaws and Outlaws and Macra Girl, brought Eddie to his hometown recently, as part of the film.

Eddie visited the now-refurbished homestead of Sam Maguire in Mallabracca, Dunmanway for A Storyteller’s Story.

Young and old gathered to hear stories of banshees and fairies and you could hear a pin drop when Eddie took the floor. When Eddie was asked: ‘What does a fairy look like?’ he didn’t hesitate to respond by stating that ‘one of them could be sitting right beside you and you wouldn’t even know it, as they quite often take the form of human beings and animals.’

A telltale sign, he continued, is that ‘a fairy’s complexion is oft-times quite pale as they have green blood flowing through their veins’.

Brendan is a part-time film-maker as well as being a full-time psychiatric nurse in Bantry. With funds earned from public screenings and donations from local West Cork businesses, in particular Mannix Tiles of Dunmanway, Brendan and his team endeavour to include anyone who has an interest in film-making and try to keep their projects as diverse as possible.

Hayes and his team will travel to Clare this week to visit the homestead of Biddy Early, a woman whose gifts for healing the sick were thought by some to be the work of witchcraft. Eddie Lenihan is an expert when it comes to Biddy and her legacy and even possesses her death certificate, despite scholars today debating whether she ever existed. 

A Storyteller’s Story will be released in the New Year.

Share this article