Charlie Bird's final scoop: The inside story of Ransom ’79 and its Schull premiere 

Even as he was sick, the late Charlie Bird was intent on breaking one more story. In advance of its premiere at Fastnet Film Festival, the director of Ransom '79 tells Esther McCarthy about that labour of love 

Ransom '79: Charlie Bird and Colin Murphy.

New Irish documentary Ransom ’79 tells the story of iconic journalist Charlie Bird’s efforts to get his final big story. A storyteller to his core, Bird wasn’t going to let his struggles with motor neurone disease prevent him from getting his last ‘scoop’.

As Bird himself puts it in the film: “I have a terminal illness, but I still have my journalistic nose for a good story,” he says, adding that the project was “keeping me alive and focused”.