RTÉ Angelus to honour Donegal filmmakers late grandfather

Bardán McGuire, a Donegal filmmaker has produced a tribute to his grandfather which will be aired as the Angelus on RTÉ One this evening, Friday.

The filmmaker is a Glencolmcille native and he has dedicated the piece to his late grandfather John McGuire, who for the past four years was ill with severe COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), which is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes obstructed airflow from the lungs) and passed away last month.

The finished piece was immediately accepted by RTÉ and includes shots of the standing stones of An Túras Colm Cille in Glencolmcille and an Port. Bardán originally began shooting the piece with the intention of showing his grandfather in hospital, but sadly he passed before it was complete. 

Bardán graduated from the Film and Media Production course at ATU Letterkenny. “Along with my brother Dominic, we were the first members of our family to graduate from university,”  Bardán shared. 

“When I was younger, my grandfather, whom we knew as Pappie used to drive us out to the valley and bay of An Port in Glencolmcille, to pick dilisc, carrageen moss, slog, barneachs and wilks.

“We would take them home to Glen and either dry the seaweed and cook the barneachs and wilks and feast on them. 

“An Port was where Pappie’s mother Aggie Dinis Mc Ginley (daughter of the last person to die in An Port) was born, it was his spiritual home, and it became ours.

“After Pappie became ill he couldn’t go out to An Port anymore so I decided to make a Peoples Angelus for him to show him in his room in Killybegs Hospital.  

“I started shooting the piece and had it 90% finished when the weather stopped me from filming.  Sadly, Pappie died this February before I could finish the piece, and the day after his funeral I went out to An Port and shot the few scenes I needed to shoot to finish the piece.”

The Angelus will be screened on RTÉ One at 6pm