{"id":372746,"date":"2026-03-07T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/372746\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:14:13","slug":"my-upbringing-in-cork-pub-helped-my-film-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/372746\/","title":{"rendered":"My upbringing in Cork pub helped my film role"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n B\u00e1ite is a new Irish-language film set in the 1970s in a rural community that is shaken following the discovery of a body.<\/p>\n

Directed by Ruan Magan and written by Sheena Lambert, based on her novel, the film stars Moe Dunford as Detective Sergeant Frank Ryan, who is sent from Dublin to investigate the circumstances of the death. <\/p>\n

While the film examines the aftermath of the body\u2019s discovery, it centres on Peggy (Eleanor O\u2019Brien), a young pub owner fighting to keep her family pub in the West of Ireland.<\/p>\n

Dunford, who is from Waterford and lived for several years in Cork, says he was drawn to the script\u2019s exploration of change. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love that it was set in the 1970s, a changing time in Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked how Frank, who\u2019s trying to get away from the more modernised Ireland, slowly becomes interested in being part of the small town community. I love the family dynamics of Peggy running the pub.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was such richness about a changing Ireland, set against the backdrop of Peggy and her struggle to keep her family pub and her place in life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite not being a Gaeilgeoir, Dunford was keen to meet the film\u2019s director, Ruan Magan, and take on the challenge of the role. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got an offer to meet Ruan, and I was very excited, but then I was told that it\u2019s in Gaeilge and my Irish wasn\u2019t up to scratch,\u201d said Dunford.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met anyway. I got to read a bit of the script, and from the parts I could make out, I really enjoyed that it was set in a rural town with a sense of community and of trying to uncover the truth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Magan is a renowned Gaeilgeoir, but Dunford said the director was keen to mix actors with varying levels of Irish and to support them regardless of their ability. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were actors from all over Ireland, with varying degrees of fluency and different dialects: Connemara, Waterford, Dingle, Cork (the film also stars Cork\u2019s Denis Conway), Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis made it easier to join the cast, rather than if all the actors had been fluent.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dunford reached out to his secondary school Irish teacher to help him reconnect with the language. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love that Frank is described as having just passed his Irish exam to get into the Garda\u00ed. I didn\u2019t want to play him that way, but it helped take the pressure off, so I brushed up with the help of my old Irish teacher.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was great to feel the challenge. I\u2019m Irish, it\u2019s already there, and I\u2019ve always wanted to do an Irish language movie.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

For Dunford, whose career has ranged from The Vikings to The Dry and his break-out role in St Patrick\u2019s Day, it was also an opportunity to connect with stories set outside of Dublin. <\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to work in the West,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to make more rural stories; stories set outside of Dublin city centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have nothing against Dublin; I live here now, and I love the city, but there\u2019s a certain reality and Irishness you don\u2019t get in Dublin-centric stories, which you find on the outskirts.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt meant a lot to tell stories in our language and about a changing Ireland, and I thought B\u00e1ite was a really good one to do.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Like the main character, Peggy, Dunford understands pub life firsthand. Although he was born and educated in Waterford, he spent several formative years in Cork after his family bought a pub in Ladysbridge. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I still went to school in Dungarvan, I grew up in a pub my mum and dad bought in Ladysbridge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were lots of elements of pub life in the film that I understood, like Peggy holding down the pub, the local in the corner who is the staff\u2019s favourite, and the small gestures and salutes between the staff and the customers. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe music and the singing, even the children being hoisted up onto the bar by their father while he was drinking, and everyone watching the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have those memories of growing up, and the script captured that element of community and Irishness, which is very important.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the film, as the truth about the body stirs old emotions in the village, it is up to Peggy to hold the community together through her loyalty to her customers.<\/p>\n

Dunford says growing up in a pub gives you a real sense of what it is to be part of a community. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a great sense of things inside a pub. You meet interesting characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched Eleanor as Peggy and saw how comfortable she was behind the bar. If there was anything wrong with the pub, you could see it in how she picked up the cloth or pulled a pint.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s something very Irish and effortless about how she\u2019s the matriarch of the place, holding down the fort.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cI found that really impressive and truly representative of Irish rural life.\u201d <\/p>\n

The film is Magan\u2019s feature directorial debut, although he has made several successful documentaries. Dunford says he easily adapted to the demands of narrative work. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis background in Irish history and his love of nature really added to his sense of the era and community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started shooting, there was a full moon, and on the last day, there was an aurora borealis. It made it extra special.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuan loved the feeling of setting and place, and that there\u2019s something unearthed about Peggy and Frank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a connection, a chance for them to help each other find themselves or start again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved Ruan\u2019s understanding of the character Frank and Sheena\u2019s writing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n B\u00e1ite opened in\u00a0cinemas on March 6, cert: 12a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"B\u00e1ite is a new Irish-language film set in the 1970s in a rural community that is shaken following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[33310,33309,33308,3262,18,117,19,17,33307],"class_list":["post-372746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cork-entertainment","tag-cork-film","tag-cork-music","tag-downtown","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-stevie-g"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116188078694783596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}