Star Wars fans climb stairway to heaven on Ceann Sibéal
ORGANISERS of Féile Star Wars in Ballyferriter got an insight into the fervour of the film’s legions of fans when a man who travelled from New York for the festival fell down on his knees on Ceann Sibéal, overcome with emotion at touching the same ground as Luke Skywalker.
If that was an eye-opener for the organisers, the festival was a dream ticket for the Star Wars faithful who were able to watch the film, visit film sets around Ceann Sibéal, drink blue milk cocktails in Ballyferriter’s pubs, and even make model ‘Porgs’ (a puffin-like bird from the film) at Louis Mulcahy’s pottery.
The festival got underway on Thursday with an early, invitation-only, showing of ‘The Last Jedi’ for film set workers. There were some empty seats, which didn’t go down well with farmers who hadn’t been invited, but local organisers weren’t at fault for this and it was the only blip in an otherwise hugely successful event. At 5pm a second showing of the film for children was a boisterous affair, followed by a group of 14 members of the Emerald Garrison Star Wars fan club in full regalia wielding light sabres and throwing shapes inside and outside the cinema, to the delight of the local children.
The evening screening on Thursday had an adult audience who followed the action, and especially the local scenes, with intense interest. “The atmosphere was electric. You could hear a pin drop in the cinema,” said Breege Granville, a festival organiser and new convert to the ranks of Star Wars fans.
On Friday and Saturday féile organisers conducted guided tours of the film sites at Farran and Ceann Sibéal. Neolie Ó Maoileoin pointed out where specific scenes had been filmed, interspersed local mythology with Star Wars lore and had Star Wars fans hanging on his every word.
One of the people on the tour was the man from New York who was brought to West Kerry by his wife and mother in law as a 40th birthday present. Proving that age is no barrier to Star Wars devotion, he dropped to his knees on Ceann Sibéal, tears streaming down his face.
“He couldn’t believe he was standing where Luke Skywalker stood. The guy was in absolute bits… He thought he was in heaven,” said Breege.
The New Yorker later did a podcast from Ballyferriter and, according to Breege, “it was better than any Fáilte Ireland advertisement for the country”.
The pupils at Scoil Náisiúnta an Fheirtéaraigh were at the centre of the action for a time on Friday when they were visited by the Emerald Garrison – fully kitted out in costumes that cost up to €7,000, in the case of the perfect-in-every-detail Captain Phasma lookalike. Having been visited by (the real) Chewbacca during the filming in 2016, the children in Scoil an Fheirtéaraigh are old hands at the whole Star Wars thing and they were able to welcome the Emerald Garrison with a note-perfect rendition of the film’s theme music, played on tin whistles.
“They [the children] were excellent, all in costume and so enthusiastic,” said Breege. There were lots of Reys and Princess Leias there and, fair play to the mammies, a lot of the costumes were home-made.”
The Emerald Garrison members, who travelled at mostly their own expense, were excellent as well, “fantastic with the children” and hugely helpful to the festival organisers. The Garrison has become a patron of the festival, offering very helpful advice on the kind of things that are cherished by Star Wars aficionados. Among the gems of information is that Ballyferriter should hold a Star Wars day on May 4. This is a special day for Star Wars fans because, when you say it out loud, May the 4th sounds like that iconic line from the film series: ‘May the force be with you’.
Festival organisers are considering taking up the idea for a May 4 Star Wars event in Ballyferriter. Breege reckons it’d also be a perfect day to host a lecture on Gareth (brother of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibne teacher Fergal Daly) Daly’s research into the parallels between Celtic mythology and Star Wars.
It all points to huge tourism possibilities for the Ballyferriter area but festival organisers are highly focused on ensuring that this happens in a way that benefits the local community and especially the farmers whose land was used for filming. What they specifically don’t want to see are hordes of fans traipsing around farms without permission and then getting back on a coach heading east.
Managing this will be no easy task but it’ll be top of the agenda at a festival de-briefing to be held later this week at which organisers will consider where to go from here.