Movie/TV Show 8: The Tudors

The Tudors is a British-Canadian historical fiction television series set primarily in sixteenth-century England, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime. The series, although named after the Tudor dynasty as a whole, is based specifically upon the reign of King Henry VIII of England. 

Dublin Castle 

Dublin Castle has a long history which goes back to King John, the first Lord of Ireland, though most of the building dates from the 18th century. Originally built as a defensive fortification for Norman Dublin in 1204, it became the seat of the English Government and later the British Government under the Lordship of Ireland, the Kingdom of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1921 after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, it was handed over to the new provisional government led by Michael Collins, and in 1922 it assumed the role of the Four Courts for a decade, which had been badly damaged during the civil war. In 1938 the castle hosted the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, and has been the venue for the event ever since. It’s 

also used for official State visits, informal foreign affairs, State banquets, Government policy launches, as well as the central base for Ireland’s European Presidency roughly every 10 years. Aside from ‘The Tudors’, Dublin Castle also features in ‘Barry Lyndon’, ‘Michael Collins’, ‘Becoming Jane’, and ‘Medallion’. It also hosts the Heineken Green Energy festival every May and features on the album cover of ‘Khartoum Variations’ by Jandek. 

Kilmainham Jail

Kilmainham Jail was first built in 1796 and played an important role in Irish history as a number of political prisoners were held, and some executed there. In 1924 it was decommissioned as a prison by the Irish Free State Government and has been under the direction of the OPW since the mid 1980s. Notable inmates include Henry Joy McCracken (1796), Oliver Bond (1798), James Bartholomew Blackwell (1799), James Napper Tandy (1799), Robert Emmet (1803), Anne Devlin (1803), Thomas Russell (1803), Michael Dwyer (1803), William Smith O'Brien (1848), Thomas Francis.

Aside from The Tudors, the jail also features in The Quare Fellow, The 

Face of Fu Manchu, The Italian Job, The Mackintosh Man, The Last Remake of Beau Geste, The 

Whistle Blower, The Babe, In the Name of the Father, Michael Collins, The Escapist, The Adventures.

Movie 7: The General

The General is an Irish crime film directed by John Boorman about Dublin crime boss Martin Cahill, who pulled off several daring heists in the early 1980s, and attracted the attention of the Garda Síochána, IRA, and Ulster Volunteer Force. The film was shot in 1997 and released in 1998. Brendan Gleeson plays Cahill, Adrian Dunbar plays his friend Noel Curley, and Jon Voight plays Inspector Ned Kenny. 

South Lotts

South Lotts is a small area to the South of the Liffey in Dublin 4, developed after the embankment of the Liffey in 1711. It is home to Google’s European headquarters, as well as an apartment complex in an area called The Gasworks. The area also hosts greyhound racing on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at the Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium. Aside from The General, other films such as In The Name Of The Father and Educating Rita were filmed in the area, as well as commercials for Eircom and Vodafone.

Ranelagh

Ranelagh is a residential area located in Dublin 6, and played a part in the Irish Confederate wars, including the Battle of Rathmines in 1649. It is the home of some of Irelands leading politicians, such as Garret FitzGerald, Michael McDowell, Mary Robinson, Robert Briscoe, Michael Mulcahy, and Eamon Ryan. Other notable individuals from the area include Maureen O’Hara (actress), Maeve Brennan (author/journalist), Ken Doherty (former world snooker champion), Eamon Morrissey (actor), John Mulholland (editor of The Observer), Brendan O’Reilly (Olympian, RTE commentator, journalist, singer, songwriter, actor, author), and Eamon Dunphy (Irish media personality, broadcaster, author, sports pundit, former pro footballer). Aside from the General, part of Lenny Abrhamson’s 2013 film Frank, was shot on Cowper Gardens and Park Drive. 

Phoenix Park

Phoenix Park is one the largest walled city parks in Europe, covering 1,750 acres. It is home to Áras an Uachtaráin, Dublin Zoo, the Papal Cross, the Deerfield Residence, Phoenix Park Visitor Centre and Ashtown Castle, the People's Gardens, Magazine Fort, and monuments which include, the Wellington Monument which is the largest obelisk in Europe, and the Phoenix Column, a Corinthian column located on Chesterfield Avenue. Other places of note in the park are the Furry Glen, Farmleigh (the State guest house), the headquarters of An Garda Síochána, the National Ambulance Service College (formerly the Hibernian Military School), Ordnance Survey Ireland in Mountjoy House, Irish Defence Forces Dick McKee Barracks, Ratra House (former home of Civil Defence Ireland from 1950 until 2006), Grangegorman Military Cemetery, and grounds for football, hurling, soccer, cricket and polo. The park is home to a variety of flora and fauna, including 351 species of trees, 400-

450 fallow deer and 72 species of bird, as well as holding several streams and tributaries of the Liffey. Phoenix Park hosts a number of events annually, motor racing, the Great Ireland Run and various concerts, amongst others. It also features in James Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ and ‘Ulysses’. 

Movie 6: The Commitments

The Commitments follows the story of young musician Jimmy Rabbitte in his quest to manage “the world’s greatest soul band”. Assembling a group of young musicians, with the help of Musical veteran, Joey “the Lips” Fagan, Jimmy begins to whip the members into shape, with both brilliant and disastrous results.

Directed by Alan Parker, The Commitments is the film adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s novel about a Dublin soul band from “Barrytown”. Although a fictional location, Doyle based Barrytown on  Kilbarrack, a working class area in North County Dublin. The film was shot in 44 locations throughout Dublin’s North side and city center with only one location (Jimmy Rabbitte’s House) created in a studio.

Kilbarrack

Only one of these 44 scenes was actually shot in Kilbarrack itself. The walkway, where Jimmy Rabbitte convinces Outspan and Derek that they should play ‘Dublin Soul’ – and have ‘The’ in their name – is Kilbarrack D.A.R.T. (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) Station.

Kilbarrack, served by a station principally was constructed for the new council residential areas that were becoming established in the area. Kilbarrack Station was opened on the 1st June 1969, and was of a simple construction, consisting of up & down platforms, small concrete built booking office and a Victorian footbridge which had been salvaged from a former station elsewhere. In the early 1980s, with the commencement of the DART services, the footbridge was replaced as well as the booking office, a red bricked building taking its place.

St. Lawrence O’Toole Church, Sheriff Street

For the opening scene with Jimmy is seen trying to offload cassettes and t-shirts. Although the street market featured was created for the film. It was on Sheriff Street, in front of St Laurence O’Toole Church, in the North Wall district, just east of Dublin’s city centre.

The Camden Deluxe Hotel

The dilapidated pool hall above which the band rehearses is located above the Palace Nightclub in the Camden Deluxe Hotel, Camden Street. It was Ricardo’s Snooker Hall, built in 1912 as a movie palace, and given an art deco makeover in the Thirties. (According to local rumour, Rita Hayworth and her husband attended a screening here in the 1950s).

It’s now the Camden Deluxe Hotel, 84-87 Camden Street Lower, south of Temple Bar. The elaborately decorated arched ceiling seen in the film has been preserved and is now part of the Palace Nightclub, above the hotel. The room still serves as a popular snooker hall just as in the film. The Commitments ‘rehearsal room’ was also seen in 1995’s An Awfully Big Adventure, with Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman.

St Francis Xavier Church 

The church, in which Jimmy finds keyboard player Steven playing A Whiter Shade of Pale on the organ and where at confession the priest displays an inept knowledge of Sixties soul) is St Francis Xavier Church, Upper Gardiner Street, near Mountjoy Square.

Designed by Father Bartholomew Esmonde SJ the church was erected by the architect Joseph B. Keane. The first stone of this classical cut granite building was laid on 2 July 1829, the year of Catholic Emancipation.

 Architectural critic Christine Casey describes it in her book, "Dublin", as "the most elegant church of the period in Dublin". 

The building is known for its collection, sculpted altar piece, and paintings, mostly Italian in origin and dating from the Victorian period. 

 Father B. Esmonde's knowledge of the temples of Italy acquired during his long residency there is reflected in the churches own architectural features, including iconic colonnade, portico and visually deceptive celestial domed ceiling.

In 1889 the funeral was held here for the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

The church also features in James Joyce's short story "Grace" from Dubliners, however The Commitments was the only movie filmed in this location.

Mansion House, Dawson Street

The ‘Westley Hotel’, where Jimmy tags along with Joey in the hope of meeting soul legend Wilson Pickett makes a convincing-looking hotel is none other than the city’s Mansion House on Dawson Street, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715, which now also houses the restaurant, Fire.

Movie 5: The Snapper

The Snapper is a 1993 Irish television film which was directed by Stephen Frears and starred Tina Kellegher, Colm Meaney and Brendan Gleeson. The film is based on the novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle, about the Rabbitte family and their domestic adventures. It forms part of Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy which includes The Van, The Commitments and The Snapper. The film was directed by Stephen Frears and stars Tina Kellegher and Colm Meaney.

The Film follows the story of young Sharon Curley who becomes pregnant, but refuses to tell anyone who the father is. She decides to keep the baby ("snapper") and her family, each in their own way, eventually decides to support her.  Her refusal to name the father sets in motion a family drama involving her three brothers, two sisters, and her parents, along with her employers and all her friends.

Raheny

The Coastal town of Raheny provides an idyllic setting for the fictional “Barrytown”. Raheny is situated on the coast of County Dublin, about 8 km from Dublin city centre and 7 km from Dublin Airport, and has been for centuries within the jurisdiction of Dublin City Council, formerly Dublin Corporation. The historic county boundary lies close by. Nearby areas include Killester, Clontarf, Artane, Kilbarrack, Coolock, Donaghmede and the skyline is dominated by Howth Head. station, although it has its own railway station, parts of Raheny are served by other DART stations, Harmonstown and Kilbarrack, on the same line. The Kilbarrack station proves an important location as the Rabbitte Family (Changed to Curley by 20^th century Fox) live in a council house just outside the station grounds.

The Old Shieling Hotel, Raheny

The Shieling Hotel, in the former Fox Hall, and a part of the small Regency Hotel group, ceased operation in early 2008, after planning permission had been granted, after an appeal, to redevelop the main house, a protected historic structure, as flats, due to its significance to the area and also its appearance in The Snapper.

The Cedar Lodge Pub also makes an appearance in the film and is located near the Old Shelling Hotel. This historic pub also made an appearance in The Van The Pub was Frequented by author Roddy Doyle during his years living at home in Kilbarrack.

Ballybough

Ballybough is an inner city district of north east Dublin city, Ireland.  It situated north of the Summerhill the term Bailebough in Irish is derived from the 'Baile' Town and 'Bocht' meaning 'poor'. Prior to its urbanization in the late nineteenth century, Ballybough was known as Mud Island, owing to its proximity to the mud flats that now form Fairview.

Known characters of ill-repute during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The authorities designated an area of burial known as 'the Suicide Plot' for the areas drunks, criminals and prostitutes. It is from this burial site Bram Stoker derived the idea of the cross for his novel 'Dracula,' the cross being the junction of Clonliffe Road and Ballybough Road. Sadly, this site now hosts two large advertising billboards which local residents are trying to have removed.

The area was home to such famous people such as Luke Kelly of The Dubliners folk group for whom Ballybough Bridge over the River Tolka is named. The film director Jim Sheridan (Foot, The) is also from the area. Curtis Flemming from Tolka Road played International football for Ireland as did Paddy Moore from Clonliffe Avenue.

Close by at Jones's Road is Croke Park, the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. This sports stadium is among the most modern in Europe with a capacity of 83,000. In addition to hurling and Gaelic football it is also used as a rock concert venue. It is here that U2 has played to some of its largest audiences. The stadium was also the venue where world boxing champion Muhammad Ali defeated 'Al Blue' Lewis in a non-title fight in 1972.

The Rotunda Hospital

The Rotunda Hospital, one of the three main maternity hospitals in Dublin features as the birthplace of Sharon’s baby, the Snapper. The hospital is located just off the top of O'Connell Street, on Parnell Square.

The hospital, originally known as "The Dublin Lying-In Hospital", was founded in 1745 by Bartholomew Mosse (1712-1759), a surgeon and man-midwife who was appalled at the conditions that pregnant mothers had to endure at the time. Initially located in George's Lane, it was later moved to its present location in 1757 where it became known as "The New Lying-In Hospital", referred to today as "The Rotunda".

The design of the hospital's main building was undertaken by the renowned architect Richard Cassels, who was also responsible for Leinster House,Russborough House and Powerscourt House. 

Movie 4: Intermission

Intermission is an urban love story about people adrift and their convoluted journeys in the search for some kind of love. A misguided break-up between two young lovers initiate’s a series of events affecting everyone around them with cataclysmic results. All the characters are blissfully unaware of the accidental nature of life and the way in which their lives intersect. The hapless lover and his best mate, the sex-starved singleton; the maverick detective and a ruthless petty thief; the pretty girl on the rebound with an older married man; the deserted wife on the brink of breakdown; the ambitious TV producer; the robbed and the abandoned fiancé and a nine year old tearaway all find their lives interweaving in this hilarious story of modern romance with a biter twist.People get blinding glimpses into the real nature of their lives and can see they’ve been stuck in a rut for years, just going through the motions. Sometimes they see with equal clarity that they are free to take charge and sometimes it’s just too late.

Kilbarrack Shopping Centre

Intermission as a film constantly has the viewer on edge as to what is going to happen next, As the lives of each character unveils. The opening scene with Collin Farrell is set Kilbarrack Shopping Centre. ( Which has gone through a lot of changes since this film was released)  Its  located on the east side of Grange Park Avenue just off the Raheny Road. Both Raheny and Kilbarrack Dart Station are in close proximity. Raheny road is a busy thoroughfare between the Tonlegee Road and Howth Road. 

Kilbarrack is an old district, whose name can be found on maps and sea charts, many held at Dublin City Archive, going back several hundred years. It was historically a large area of fields, many being 'grange' lands held by Dublin church establishments, with small settlements. Over time, two hamlets emerged, Kilbarrack proper, near the seafront, close to the still-extant Kilbarrack Church and Graveyard complex , and Little Kilbarrack, on the road inland (now Tonlegee Road).

The district is crossed by one of Dublin's small waterways, the Kilbarrack Stream or Donough Water, which enters the sea in two branches.

The site of Kilbarrack hamlet, and the part of the district bounding Sutton and Baldoyle, are now together known as Bayside (from inside Kilbarrack Road to Baldoyle Road), while today's Kilbarrack, and the Greendale shopping and civic complex, are close to where Little Kilbarrack stood. The Tesco-led shopping centre is near the site of the former "big house" of the area, Kilbarrack House.

In the 1970s, Swans Nest Court, a complex of tower blocks of flats was built by Dublin Corporation. It was demolished and redeveloped into social and affordable housing in the early 2000s after it fell into disrepair. 

Movie 3: Crushproof

Just hours after his release from prison Neal takes his murderous revenge and ends up on the run with his old gang. But the gang he once considered his home from home is no longer his refuge and their days as urban cowboys riding the wild horses are numbered. 

Crushproof is The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse reset in the already vanishing 'pony club' subculture of Dublin's wild Northside. It tells the mythic but realistic tale of the last gang in town riding rough-shod and bare-back towards the millennium.

Mountjoy Prison

Mountjoy was designed by the British military engineering officer, Captain Joshua Jebb, Royal Engineers and opened in 1850, based on the design of London's Pentonville Prison also designed by Jebb. Originally intended as the first stop for men sentenced to transportation, they would spend a period in separate confinement before being transferred to Spike Island and transported from there to Van Diemen's Land.A total of 46 prisoners (including one woman, Annie Walsh) were executed within the walls of the prison, prior to the abolition of capital punishment. Executions were done by hanging, after which the bodies of the dead were taken down from the gallows and buried within the prison grounds in unmarked graves. The list of prisoners executed at Mountjoy Prison includes:

-Kevin Barry

-Patrick Moran

-Frank Flood

-Thomas Whelan

-Thomas Traynor

-Patrick Doyle

-Thomas Bryan

-Bernard Ryan

-Edmond Foley

-Patrick Maher

Annie Walsh from Limerick was found guilty of murdering her husband and was executed in Mountjoy prison on 5 August 1925. She remains the only woman ever executed by the Irish State. e last execution carried out in the Republic of Ireland, that of Michael Manning, took place in Mountjoy Prison on 20 April 1954.Some Irish leaders involved with the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War were held there. On 14 May 1921, an IRA team led by Paddy Daly and Emmet Dalton mounted an attempt to rescue Sean McEoin from the prison. They used a captured armoured car to gain access to Mountjoy, but were discovered and had to shoot their way out. On 31 October 1973, it was the scene of a spectacular escape by helicopter by three Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners.

Ballymun

Ballymun is an area on Dublin’s Northside close to Dublin Airport.  It is infamous for the Ballymun flats, which became a symbol of poverty, drugs, alienation from the state and social problems in Ireland from the 1970s. Today it is undergoing a multi-billion euro renewal, with a renovated village centre, surrounded by estates of houses and apartments. Among the opprobrium heaped on Ballymun, the deployment of the flats has been described by the environmental journalist Frank McDonald, in his book The Construction of Dublin, as the Irish state's 'worst planning disaster'. However, at the time of its construction, Ballymun was a sought after location and prospective tenants had to pass an interview to get housing there. There were three types of flats: seven fifteen-storey towers; nineteen eight-storey blocks; ten four-storey blocks. The flats were built in the 1960s under the authority of Neil Blaney, the then Fianna Fáil Minister for Local Government. They incorporated the best social housing practice of the time. The first tenants moved in between August 1966 and December 1966. By February 1969, when the National Building Agency's contract for Ballymun ceased and control of Ballymun was handed to Dublin Corporation (Dublin County Council didn't want it), there was a total of 3,021 dwellings in the new Ballymun, all of which was social housing under the control of the Irish state through Dublin Corporation (the Corpo).

The tenants primarily came from the most deprived areas of inner city Dublin, places where the depth of poverty could not be conceived of in modern Ireland. Many tenants were middle class residents whose property was 'compulsory purchased' by Dublin City Council. They arrived in Ballymun to some of the finest social housing in Europe, having central heating and other rarities of the day in their homes.

However, there was a profound lack of amenities throughout the area - initially the only shop was a van selling at premium prices, for example - and, combined with a lack of trees, and estates built in cul de sacs, ghettoisation developed. The earliest efforts to improve services began in the 1970s with the establishment of tenants' associations, particularly in Sillogue. By the recession of the 1980s, Ballymun was infested with social problems, most especially alcohol and other drug abuse. Although the public image of Ballymun has changed dramatically since then.

Phoenix Park

Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin  lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 11 km perimeter wall encloses 707 hectares (1,750 acres), one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth century has been home to a herd of wild Fallow deer. The English name comes from the Irish fionn uisce meaning "clear water". 

The Wellington Monument

The Wellington Monument is a 62 metres (203 ft) tall obelisk commemorating the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. It is the largest obelisk in Europe and would have been even higher if the publicly subscribed funding had not run out. Designed by Robert Smirke, there are four bronze plaques cast from cannons captured at the Battle of Waterloo—three of which have pictorial representations of Wellington's career while the fourth has an inscription at the base of the obelisk.

River Liffey

The earliest stone bridge over the Liffey of which there is solid evidence was the Bridge of Dublin (on the site of the current Fr. Mathew Bridge) built by the Dominicans in 1428, which survived well into the 18th century.This bridge with four arches included various buildings such as a chapel, bakehouse and possibly an inn and replaced an earlier wooden bridge (Dubhghalls Bridge) on the same site. Island Bridge (a predecessor of the current bridge) was added in 1577. With the development of commercial Dublin in the 17th century, four new bridges were added between 1670 and 1684: Barrack, or Bloody Bridge, (the forerunner of the current Rory O'More Bridge), Essex Bridge (Grattan Bridge), Ormond Bridge (O'Donovan Rossa Bridge) and Arran Bridge. The oldest bridge still standing is the Mellows Bridge, (originally Queens Bridge) constructed in 1764 on the site of the Arran Bridge, which was destroyed by floods in 1763. The first iron bridge was the elegant Ha'penny Bridge built in 1816. The newest bridge is the Samuel Beckett Bridge opened in December 2009. A suspension bridge, it swivels to allow river traffic to pass. 

The Liffey (An Life in Irish) is a river in Ireland, which flows through the centre of Dublin. The river supplies much of Dublin's water, and a range of recreational opportunities.

The Shelbourne Hotel

The Shelbourne Hotel is a famous hotel situated in a landmark building on the north side of St Stephen's Green, in Dublin. Currently operated by Marriott International, the hotel has 265 rooms in total The Shelbourne Hotel was founded in 1824 by Tipperary man Martin Burke, when he acquired three adjoining townhouses overlooking Dublin's St Stephen's Green - Europe's largest garden square. Burke named his grand new hotel The Shelbourne, after William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne.

-In the early 1900s, Alois Hitler, Jr, the half brother of Adolf Hitler, worked in the hotel while in Dublin.

-In 1922, the Irish Constitution was drafted in room 112, now known as The Constitution Room.

Movie 2: Braveheart

Braveheart is a 1995 historical drama war film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. Gibson 

portrays William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish warrior who led the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England. The story is based on Blind Harry's epic poem The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace and was adapted for the screen by Randall Wallace. It has been described as one of the most historically 

inaccurate modern films. 

The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards at the 68th Academy Awards and won five including Best Picture, Best Makeup, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Director. 

Dunsoghly Castle (Edinburgh Castle)

The castle was built by Sir Thomas Plunkett around the middle of the 15th century, consisting of a central block four storeys high and square corner towers, which have corbelled roofing. The wooden roof on the top floor, which has been partially replaced, is the last original 15th to 16th century roof in the country to survive. To the South of the castle is a small chapel that has lost its chancel and bears over its North doorway a representation of the Instruments of the Passion inscription, ‘IPMDDS’ and the date 1573. Parts of the old bawn of the castle are incorporated in a neighbouring farm building. Access to the public is restricted, if members of the public wish to visit the castle a request must be made in writing to the keyholder. There are no other film, television or music  associations with the castle.