Castleisland will feature in a repeat of the 2013 shot series Spillane an Fánaí on TG4 on this Wednesday night, April 27th at 10pm. with another showing on Sunday night, May 1st at 9pm.
The half-hour look at the town, its attractions, its history and inhabitants was created by a Cork based company in May 2013. The programme makers included a huge cast of locals in the compilation of this part of the series.
Spillane an Fánaí has been described by TG4 as a heart-warming and revealing six part entertainment series.
The production company, ForeFront TV Production, combined off-the-cuff encounters with local people, interviews and music sequences.
In the course of the making of the series, John Spillane spent a week in six different locations. He worked in a local pub in each place and ventured out to meet a host of locals in search of musical inspiration for his song-writing in the uniqueness and character of small town life.
While in Castleisland, the talented singer/songwriter from the famous ‘Hit Factory’ in Cork based himself in Browne’s Bar on Main Street and got on famously well with the natives for the duration.
The programme makers describe the content as: “A fascinating Irish-speaking exploration of the history and personality of rural towns outside of the traditional Gaeltacht areas.”
They looked locally for people who were fluent ‘As Gaeilge’ and for people who had a ‘Cupla Focal’ and weren’t afraid to use them. They found both for the making of their bi-lingual, finished product here.
The programmes in the series provide insightful glimpses of life in these little towns. The communities and the diverse content and nature of the end product really defies the time constraints the production team were under.
