Councillor Barry Sweeny believes RTÉ drama Obituary will benefit the locality

Ballyshannon Councillor Barry Sweeny believes that south Donegal could benefit significantly from the exposure of a new RTÉ drama. 

The pilot of a new six-part series, Obituary, that was shot in South Donegal aired on RTÉ One on Tuesday. Thus far, it has mainly positive reviews with many viewers praising it for its originality.

The series is set around a small-town fictional newspaper, which was shot between Market Street, Lawne Park and St Anne’s Cemetery in Ballyshannon, Rougey and Bundoran’s West End. 

The filming started in February this year and lasted approximately three months. The series is located in a fictional small town called Kilraven, a combination of Ballyshannon and Bundoran with a dark twist. Kilraven has a population of approximately 5,000. 

Believing this shows off some of what Donegal has to offer as well as bringing in more tourism and adding to local talent. 

“It displays the beauty looking over the Donegal Bay, the beautiful shot of Murvagh Forest and the drone footage of Ballyshannon in the opening scene, it portrays the town well visually,” Councillor Sweeny said. 

“The show was really good for the local economy, in the months of January, February and March when the town would be really quiet there was an extra 60 or 80 people around each day, availing of food and accommodation”.

Obituary is categorised as a quirky dark comedy crime drama. The series centres around a young journalist who gets paid €200 per obituary. As her work starts to dry up, she devises a plan to murder those that she dislikes in her town and cover it up to earn a commission. As a result, she discovered she had an ‘untapped bloodlust’. Everything is seemingly going well for Elvira until the company hires a new crime correspondent and Elvira begins to develop feelings which hinder her new plans. 

The show combines dark themes of death and murder with light themes of small-town gossip and romance. Obituary features a star-studded Irish cast, Siobhán Cullen plays the protagonist, Elvira Clancy, a 24-year-old journalist. Michael Smiley stars as Elvira’s troubled father and Emerson Stafford plays the role of the new crime correspondent. The series is directed by John Hayes, an IFTA-nominated director who is based in Dublin. 

“My brother Conan is an actor and he got a small part in it as well, he was in the background last night but he has a couple of small speaking parts in it,” Councillor Sweeny added. “He is acting as a barman”.

“There is a really high calibre of actors involved, some of them are up and coming such as the lead Siobhan Cullen. The crew involved are also really on top of their game, I was extremely impressed with their ability and professionalism.”

All of the episodes are now available on the RTÉ player to stream and episode two will be shown on RTÉ One next Tuesday at 10:15 pm.