See the pictures from behind the scenes!
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Discovery Channel aired a one-hour documentary about the Irish Famine and subsequent emigration, including the story of Ballykilcline in County Roscommon whose tenants were evicted and forced out of Ireland after a years-long rent strike, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003 at 9 p.m. and midnight and Saturday, Sept. 6, at noon on its program, Moments in Time. At the invitation of the Ballykilcline Society, the show's producer, Joshua Kessler, wrote the following behind-the-scenes story about the production for the Society's late-September newsletter, The Bonfire. The Society has released the story early because of advanced interest in the program. Pictures of the filming are being posted, along with Kessler's essay, on the Ballykilcline web site.
Retelling the Irish Famine for Television
By Joshua Kessler
Terra Nova Television Producer
Writing for the Ballykilcline newsletter about our Discovery Channel production that portrays the Irish Famine and the Ballykilcline story gave me pause, after so many months devoted to creating images of that history. At heart, I want to say thank you to everyone who contributed his or her talents and skills to the making of this special documentary. I must admit that before working on the new weekly series on Discovery called Moments in Time, which is hosted and narrated by actor James Woods, I had only a little knowledge of Irish culture.
The story of the great Irish journey, starting with your ancestors from Ballykilcline and leading to the mass immigration of the Irish people to America, is what our documentary is about. The series takes an archeological approach to retelling key moments in history using re-creations. It is a creative and imaginative series produced by Terra Nova Television in the very capable hands of Stephen and Ellen Eder and Supervising Producer Paul Boorstin.
I was hired by Terra Nova to produce two stories. One of them dealt with Valley Forge during the American Revolutionary War and the other concerned the Irish Potato Famine during the time known as Black '47. For a whole year, my life became engulfed by these two events. It was a great opportunity for my first producing credit and I knew I had to work hard to make these stories the best they could be.
When I started the Famine project, I knew the basics about Ireland - such as Guinness, four-leaf clovers, little green men, and the Kennedys. I had very little understanding of the potato blight and the unbelievable effects that it had on Ireland and the world. The impact was enormous and something very hard to comprehend when you look at the facts. I am Jewish, and I was raised to always remember the Holocaust during World War II, and I was taught that history has a way of repeating itself if you are not careful. I was told that if you educate yourself, then you are less likely to see horrid events repeated. I do not know if this is true or not, but it is a hopeful theory.
The Irish Potato Famine uprooted millions of lives between 1846 and 1850. The aftermath today is felt in Ireland and by millions of descendants of Irish blood who emigrated to America, Canada, and elsewhere. When I started the project, I became immersed in it and read many books about this history. Guided by experts, I began reading, for instance, The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham Smith, The End of Hidden Ireland (about Ballykilcline) by Robert Scally, and Famine Echoes (personal accounts and letters) by Cathal Poirteir. I was filled with visual images of what had occurred in Ireland under English rule. I became horrified by what had transpired over hundreds of years of oppression. What really caused the Irish Potato Famine? I was now on a mission to find out. I was going to come up with answers - or so I thought.
After watching nearly every documentary and movie related to the Famine, I became deeply depressed at the agony the Irish had gone through. I felt very guilty for the life I was leading. I remembered vivid stories of children eating rats and old people dying on the side of the road and eaten by wild dogs.
Through archeology, we were able to validate the lifestyles that the poor tenant farmers endured. Dr. Charles Orser from Illinois State University had been digging in Ire-land for years, uncovering artifacts of the way they lived. One object pulled from the archeological site in Ballykilcine was a small copper thimble with the words "Forget me not" engraved on it. This magnificent relic from the past sparked the creative team at Terra Nova. The haunting words - "Forget me not" - emerged as a lone and meaningful message from more than a hundred years ago. The main question of our documentary became: How does one little thimble represent pure absolute loss?
Grueling research followed and we discovered the family history of that lot of land where Orser's team found the thimble. Through county records of that time, we discovered that the land belonged to the patriarch of our story, a farmer named Mark Nary and his extended family. The poor farmers eventually could not afford to pay their rent, which was controlled by the British government. The families of Ballykilcine were some of the first Irish to refuse payment. A battle ensued between the British government and the poor Irish farmers. It would spark much fury as the Irish tried to win back their land at a decent rate.
Our story focused around Mark Nary's family and the neighbors of Ballykilcline who were fighting crippling rents from the British authorities. As if the situation couldn't get any worse, a disease of biblical proportions plagued the main food source of the Irish people - the potato. The worst of the worst happened: starvation. And millions of lives were changed forever.
Our documentary, titled The Great Irish Journey, premiered on the Discovery Channel on September 3. The making of the show involved many long hours of careful planning and research. Our goal was to make the story as authentic as possible. Almost the entire production was shot on location in Ireland during two separate "shoots." The first was the documentation of the archeological work of Dr. Orser and his team. It was shot on the land of Ballykilcline under the supervision of Irish-American Director Kathleen Phelan and Director of Photography (DP) Peter Pilafian. They brilliantly captured all of the archeological aspects under many difficult circumstances.
After viewing their archeology tapes back in the U.S., we then out-lined what we were going to shoot in re-created scenes. After spending a few months structuring the story, we once again set out to Ireland to shoot the re-creation section. American Director Jim Lindsay, DP Kevin O'Brien (yes, he's of Irish descent), and myself set out to the west coast of Ireland to film dramatic re-creations of the Famine. I believe that what the three of us encountered those two weeks in Ireland will forever connect us.
It was our mission to re-create one of the darkest memories of the Irish culture for this documentary. We spent the first few days of pre-production hiring staff and casting in the city of Galway. We auditioned more than a hundred Irish actors from all over Ireland and found our cast of principals and extras. The people who auditioned for us were passionate about the subject material of the Famine. We used nearly sixty actors in the five days of shooting. The actors were beyond dedicated. They worked in cold rainy weather for hours and received little pay because the budget was tight. Ireland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe.
We hired our crew mainly from Galway and Dublin. This Irish team worked hard creating a small Irish farm community that was authentic for the year 1847. They were all committed filmmakers who believed in our project and took great pride in having their Irish story told. I respected their work ethic and the re-creations couldn't have turned out as well as they did without their "fighting Irish spirit."
To shoot in unpredictable Irish weather is tough when you have a schedule to go by, and horrid weather conditions prevailed late last September when we were there. When we filmed just off the shore of Galway Harbor that leads to the great Atlantic, we encountered continuous rain, cold, bouts of bright sunlight, hailstones the size of quarters, and gale-force winds. We missed the tip of a hurricane that caused boats to capsize in the harbor and almost took parts of our set. The roads turned into huge mud rivers, which trapped our vehicles and held them hostage. The weather and obstacles fit the gloominess of our story, but we managed each challenge as it came.
I saw veteran Director Lindsay work and was impressed by his artistic creativity and strong ability to work with others. O'Brien was a director's dream to have as a DP. He captured the Irish look perfectly and worked at a very fast pace. There was one point when we were shooting a key scene andrain and darkness quickly fell upon us. We continued to shoot underneath umbrellas, trying to stay warm as the rain poured down. I looked at Kevin who was spread out on the cold wet ground with his face inches from the mud - trying both to keep the camera dry and get his shot. This guy and our crew were all troopers.
We re-created the Famine. We had actors of all ages dressed as if death was around the corner ready to take them. The performances, in my opinion and I hope yours, are gripping. The actors walked around in the mud with only rags covering their bodies.
We hired a seven-year-old girl named Katie to play one of the Nary's daughters and she was brilliant. When we did the big eviction scene of the Nary family, I sat mesmerized by the cast as they became the family evicted from their house and then forced to watch it burn. Little Katie was kicking and screaming through the entire scene. Her loud shrieks echoed in everyone's hearts and ears on the set. When we yelled "Cut," she continued to scream. She thought it was real. She was terrified at the thought of being taken from her home. It took her a while to calm down, but it was the only time she could do the scene. This horrible moment reflected for me the true terror of the famine: to be evicted by force from your home and then your country.
I hope you watched the documentary as I have only begun to skim the surface of our story. The hour is filled with powerful re-creations, archeology, and interviews with historians, a scientist, Irish family descendants (including members of your society), and one of the greatest symbols of the Irish in America - U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). So many talented people contributed to make this documentary what it is - a wonderful tribute to the Irish and American culture. It is amazing how much work and effort goes into a one-hour TV show. I am beyond grateful to have worked on this story and will carry the Irish journey in my heart always.
I was given a relevant quote by an unknown source when I began to produce this documentary. Mary Lee Dunn of your Society explained to me that genealogists sometimes use quotes in their postings. She sent me this one: "To be remembered may be the secret to Immortality." I hope we will never forget the struggles of humanity and we will use them as lessons to create a brighter future.
 |
From left, on location at the Galway filming, are Director of Photography Kevin O'Brien, Producer Joshua Kessler, and Director Jim Lindsay. Click the picture for a larger view. |
|
Depiction of the Nary (Neary) cottage at Ballykilcline during the Discovery Channel filming. Click the picture for a larger view. |
 |
|
Charles Orser Professor of Anthropology, Illinois State University. Headed up the archaeology team at Ballykilcline in 1999. Click the picture for a larger view. |
