Man of the Islands

A feature film in preproduction stage.

MAN OF THE ISLANDS

Synopsis



In 1980 Fr. Ó Péicín, a semi-retired Jesuit priest from Dublin returns to live in Ireland after a lifetime as a missionary in Africa.
He visits Tory Island to learn Irish and finds himself accepting a curate position there. He quickly realises that things are not right, people’s Spirits are broken and the community looks lost and sad.
Having suffered decades of neglect at the hands of the Irish Government, the people of Tory were loosing the will and the energy to continue as a community. They had no running water, no toilets/sewerage system, no electricity, no ferry, only 3 telephones, no roads and no secondary school.
He sets about investigating what is going on and finds that fates of the islanders are being secretly decided in the offices of Donegal County Council in Lifford. By deliberately neglecting the island’s needs and by providing council housing on the local mainland the island would be closed and that was to be the end of it.
He rallies the community to stand up and fight for their right to stay on their island and helps them to get their rights as Irish citizens, he uses the media as a vehicle for their campaign and he lobbies officials in Dublin, Strasbourg and the US and gave the Tory people back the power to decide what they wanted……which was to stay on Tory and improve their living conditions….
After 4 years Fr. Ó Péicín is banished from Tory by the Bishop of Raphoe because he is outspoken and the centre of media attention. He was central to the founding of the first Islands Federation and the Island Trust.

This is the story of the fight for survival of a small ancient community that was brought back from the brink of being another Great Blasket by their hero.