Irish documentary ‘Pobal ag Guí’ (People at Prayer) has begun production in the west of Ireland with award-winning author and journalist Catherine Foley presenting.
The religious-based documentary will chart the role and influence of religion in the social, cultural and political development of Irish society since the beginning of the 20th century. The four-part series is set against the history of religious events between the International Eucharistic Congresses of 1932 and 2012.
Filming initially began last June at the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin’s RDS. It has since moved to locations in the west of Ireland including the Fr Peyton Centre Attymass, Knock Shrine and Ballintubber Abbey in Mayo, as well as the Sunyata Buddhist retreat centre in Clare. Filming is expected to continue until mid-September.
Peter Kelly of Dublin-based Esras Films is directing and producing, with Michele Cronin executive producing. Ronan Fox is the DoP on the shoot, with Andy Smith the additional camera man. Foley, whose novels include ‘Sorcha sa Ghailearaí’ and ‘An Cailín Rua’, is presenting the four-part Irish-language series.
Sean Plunkett and Alan Poole were in charge of location sound, while Frances Rowe was the film archive researcher and Mary Jones the archival consultant.
Speaking of the setting of the production, Kelly said: “We’ll obviously compare and contrast the Eucharistic Congress of 1932 with the 2012 event. But every decade of the 20th century in Ireland seems to throw up evidence of large scale public interest in religion and we have sourced some magnificent archival film as illustration.”
Kelly, who has previously directed ‘Séiplinigh na nImirceach’, the 2008 documentary which looked at life as an emigrant chaplain, said of ‘Pobal ag Guí’: “It’s very exciting for me as a writer to be working on this series. I'm as exercised as anyone about faith and spirituality, religion and questions about existence. I'm also interested in the role of the church in Irish society.
"Those traditional aspects of daily life that we've taken for granted for so long are changing and even disappearing. Maybe this series will capture that sense of flux.”
‘Pobal ag Guí’ received €100,000 in funding from the BAI Broadcasting Funding Scheme last April. Esras Films will begin post-production on the series in late September, with the documentary expected to air on TG4 in 2013.
