[quote] Ireland’s ‘most beautiful beach’ was Insta-famous before its film debut
On Sunday night, Martin McDonagh’s film The Banshees of Inisherin will be up for nine Oscars, making it the most nominated Irish movie in the ceremony’s history. In theory, all of its lead actors could come home with a statuette, but there’s one key role that won’t be celebrated – the landscape that’s as integral to the film as Colin Farrell himself.
Along with the Aran island of Inis Mór, Achill, which is connected to the County Mayo mainland by bridge, played the part of fictional Inisherin in the movie (Inis means island in Irish). And though the house that Pádraic (Colin Farrell) shared with his sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) was set on Inis Mór, Achill did much of the hard graft, being home to the pub, the harbour, Colm’s house and the atmospheric lake on whose shores the banshee-like Mrs McCormick lives.
All this has led to an influx of tourists and a map specially created for them to trace the key locations around the island. You need a car or a bike to do it though. The film may be a study in claustrophobia but the world feels vast on Achill, Ireland’s largest island, which comes with empty roads, huge skies and nothing but a great expanse of Atlantic until Newfoundland. Whether you’ve seen The Banshees of Inisherin or not, it’s worth exploring.
Nowhere does the ocean roar harder than Atlantic Drive, the wild coast road which was temporarily home to the JJ Devine pub where Pádraic and Colm met (or latterly didn’t) in the movie. Like most of the sets, it was dismantled when filming finished, leaving a blank space with a blustery view of zigzagging cliffs.
But Achill doesn’t need film sets to be dramatic. It’s one of the most arresting places I’ve ever visited. Graham Greene thought so too: his time with lover Catherine Walston in the little village of Dooagh prompted a creative burst that led to parts of The Heart of the Matter.
Describing a recent surge in visitors, Chris McCarthy, who heads up Achill Tourism, acknowledges: “We’re lucky lieutenants who’ve had a phenomenal break.” Though it was relatively quiet in February when I travelled, it was easy to spot the Americans at Achill Island Hotel and the influencers hopping between locations clutching mics and cameras.
Near the mainland, the landscape blistered with gorse blossom and the roads came hedged in towering rhododendrons. But by the time I reached Keel, at the other end of the island where most tourists stay, the environment had been tamed somewhat. Sheep feasted on the flattened grass of the golf club and signs advertised the town’s B&Bs.
In the ice of a dazzlingly bright winter morning, the town smelled of wood smoke, or perhaps it was turf: some islanders still harvest it from Achill’s bogs for fuel. Keel’s few cafes were closed until at least 11, so I grabbed a coffee and croissant from the smart general store and headed to the beach.
It may not be part of the Banshees location trail but Keel Beach is one of the stars of Achill, up there with the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Dunes segue to pebbles, sand, sea and silhouetted cliff. Along its two-mile expanse, the waves seem widescreen.
On the day I visited, it was empty save for three teenagers who arrived in robes and bikinis and then leapt joyfully into the icy water, their shouts lost in the ocean’s clatter. But Keel is at the heart of Achill’s community. On St Patrick’s Day, there’s nowhere busier. Celebrations start at 6am in inky darkness when a drum wakes the residents; by mid-morning, pipe bands have embarked on a competing cacophony outside the church.
McCarthy tells me the pipes are an import from Scotland, where Achill residents used to seek work potato picking. A plaque on Atlantic Drive commemorates Achill’s women “who coped with loneliness and hardship” while the island’s men went off in search of jobs. Life on the island was so hard that many emigrated after the Great Famine, leaving their homes, just as (spoiler!) Siobhan leaves Inisherin in the film.
