Griffin Star Wars invite as showbiz press visit Kerry

TOURISM Minister Brendan Griffin has personally invited the makers of the Star Wars movies back to the Kingdom.

The Minister extended the open-ended invite to Lucasfilm executives while visiting the studio in San Francisco during his St Patrick’s Day US tour.

“I was delighted to visit the Lucasfilm studios and to have the opportunity to personally thank the executives there for working with us on the two most recent Star Wars films”, said Minister Griffin.

“I wanted to assure them of a very warm welcome should they ever decide to return to Ireland and, of course, that every effort will be made to facilitate them,” he said.

“I am extremely grateful to Lucasfilm for their generosity in agreeing to make several wonderful behind-the-scenes films for Tourism Ireland.

“Those films have been seen by millions of people around the world – whetting peoples’ appetites to come and visit Kerry and Ireland,” Minister Griffin added.

Last week a group of 25 leading entertainment journalists were in Kerry to tour the Star Wars filming locations at Ceann Sibéal and Skellig Michael.

The trip was arranged by Tourism Ireland in conjunction with Disney Lucasfilm.

The group from the US, Canada, Australia,and Europe have a combined reach of over 28 million and include staff from Disney Motion Pictures and reporters from Entertainment Tonight, MTV and Fox.

During their visit, the group met Dingle mountaineer Mike O’Shea, who worked on the films, and Gerard Kennedy, the proprietor of The Moorings Bar in Portmagee, where star Mark Hamill famously poured pints after the Skellig shoot wrapped.

Photos by Don MacMonagle. Local mountaineer and adventurer Mike O’Shea, who worked on both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, is interviewed about his experiences working on the Star Wars films on Cam Dhíneol Beach in west Kerry.

International entertainment journalists, broadcasters and bloggers take in the view of the Great Blasket while on their tour of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Kerry filming locations.

Leading film blogger Andrew Freund interviews Mike O’Shea in front of The Last Jedi’s spectacular west Kerry backdrop.

Photo courtesy Tourism Ireland. Tourism Minister Brendan Griffin with Alison Fisker of Lucasfilm and a menacing friend during the Minister’s tour of the film studio in San Franciso.