Home is the hero as Cillian Murphy takes to Cork stage for Safe Harbour festival
Cillian Murphy at Triskel in Cork on Friday for the screening of All of This in Unreal Time, as part of Sounds From A Safe Harbour. Picture: Brid O’Donovan
There may be an influx of national and international stars to Cork for the Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival, but on Friday at least the focus was very much on a hometown hero. Cillian Murphy took to stage at Triskel Christchurch to talk about All Of This Unreal Time, his short film with English author Max Porter that’s showing at the festival.
The 47-year-old actor has kept a low profile in recent times despite his role in the hugely successful Oppenheimer. That’s largely down to his support of the actors’ strike in the US, but Murphy has long had a tendency to fly below the radar when he can.
The Ballintemple native has previously praised his fellow-Corkonians for generally leaving him unbothered, but you’d imagine the selfie requests have increased since his Oscar-tipped role as the nuclear scientist. He cut a relaxed figure at the packed Triskel Q&A hosted by Danny Denton after the screening, bantering easily with his fellow panellists, scriptwriter Max Porter and festival director Mary Hickson.
All Of This Unreal time was filmed outside London during lockdown in 2021. “Everyone was masked,” said Murphy. “The only time I wasn’t masked was when I was speaking. It was a weird time, and seeing it now, I wonder how we ever got it done.”
The actor had also been present at Cork Opera House on Thursday night for a gig by Feist as part of the fourth incarnation of a festival he helps organise. Presumably, he enjoyed the majestic two-hour set from the Canadian singer.
For the first hour, the Canadian is solo on stage with her acoustic guitar and effect pedals. She builds an easy rapport with the audience via a mix of natural charm and clever use of a videographer wandering through the crowd, his images projected on a huge curtain behind the singer.
Just as the energy of the acoustic set threatens to wane, the curtain falls to reveal a four-piece band and the chance for the gig to go in a whole new direction. Highlights included a reworked version of her biggest hit ‘1234’, the 2007 tune that also featured in an advert for the iPod Nano.
Mick Flannery was officially the first gig of the event, and he took to the stage of The Pav on Thursday at about 6.30pm. He admits he’s feeling under the weather, and his voice is a bit rougher than usual, but he still manages to muddle through a decent gig with the help of his four-piece band.
As well as old favourites, his set before an appreciative hometown crowd includes a smattering of songs from Goodtime Charlie, his new album due next week.
Eagle-eyed members of the audience in the sold-out venue might have spotted a familiar figure to the left of the stage as the gig went on. A gasp of appreciation rippled around the crowd when the main act asked Dermot Kennedy to joined him stage. They performed two tunes together, and the mutual respect is obvious.
The Corkman praised Kennedy for being good to him in recent years, but viewers of YouTube can see the surprisingly long history these troubadours have together. A clip from 2013 shows a longhaired young Kennedy busking on Grafton Street in Dublin. The song he’s performing is a cover of Flannery’s ‘Wish You Well’.
The Pav appearance is one several live appearances Kennedy is expected to make through the weekend in Cork, as he makes the most of the collaborative opportunities the festival aims to provide for visiting artists. He also performed a free gig in the foyer of the River Lee hotel at noon on Friday.
Flannery finished his set with a particularly moving rendition of his instrumental piano tune, ‘Lissadell’, a favourite of his mathematician father David, who passed away a month ago.
Sounds From A Safe Harbour continues through the weekend with an eclectic programme of scheduled gigs and pop-up surprises.
